Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen — Volume 1Tytler, Sarah
History
Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen — Volume 1
Tytler, Sarah
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
"Inside the Museum all was previously in order, and inside the entrance
door from the gangway was a huge picture of the Megatherium, under which
the Queen must pass to the Museum, and at that place I was to receive her
Majesty. So I dusted my outer garments and ran to the Senate House, and I
was just in time to see the Prince take his degree and join in the
acclamations. This ended, I ran back to the feet of the Megatherium, and
in a few minutes the royal party entered the mysterious gangway above
described. They halted, I half thought in a spirit of mischief, to
contemplate the furniture of the schools, and the Vice-chancellor
(Whewell) pointed out the beauties of the dirty spot where Queen Bess had
sat two hundred and fifty years before, when she presided at the Divinity
Act. A few steps more brought them under the feet of the, Megatherium. I
bowed as low as my anatomy would let me, and the Queen and Prince bowed
again most graciously, and so began act first. The Queen seemed happy and
well pleased, and was mightily taken with one or two of my monsters,
especially with the 'Plesiosaurus,' and a gigantic stag. The subject was
new to her; but the Prince evidently had a good general knowledge of the
old world, and not only asked good questions and listened with great
courtesy to all I had to say, but in one or two instances helped me on by
pointing to the rare things in my collection, especially in that part of
it which contains the German fossils. I thought myself very fortunate in
being able to exhibit the finest collection of German fossils to be seen
in England. They fairly went the round of the Museum, neither of them
seemed in a hurry, and the Queen was quite happy to hear her husband talk
about a novel subject with so much knowledge and spirit. He called her
back once or twice to look at a fine impression of a dragon-fly which I
have in the Solenhope slate. Having glanced at the long succession of our
fossils, from the youngest to the oldest, the party again moved into the
lecture-room. The Queen was again mightily taken with the long neck of
the Plesiosaurus; under it was a fine head of an Ichthyosaurus which I had
just been unpacking. I did not know anything about it, as I had myself
never seen its face before, for it arrived in my absence. The Queen asked
what it was. I told her as plainly as I could. She then asked whence it
came; and what do you think I said? That I did not know the exact place,
but I believed it came as a delegate from the monsters of the lower world
to greet her Majesty on her arrival at the University. I did not repeat
this till I found that I had been overheard, and that my impertinence had
been talked of among my Cambridge friends. All was, however, taken in good
part, and soon afterwards the royal party again approached the mysterious
gangway. The Queen and Prince bowed, the Megatherium packed up his legs
close under the abdominal region of his august body, the royal pageant
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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