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
But the day's business was not ended for the great world, high and low. The
return of the procession, though the line was broken, had the special
attraction that the Queen wore her crown, and the Peers and Peeresses their
coronets. The Queen's crown was a mass of brilliants, relieved here and
there by a large ruby or emerald, encircling a purple velvet cap. Among the
stories told of the coronation, foremost and favourite of which was the
misadventure of poor Lord Rolle, and the pretty gentle way in which the
young Queen did her best to help the sufferer; an incident was reported
which might have had its foundation in the difficulties described by Miss
Martineau as besetting the fair Peeress in the Abbey. It was said that the
Queen's crown was too cumbrous, and disturbed the arrangement of those soft
braids of hair, the simple, modest fashion of which called forth Sir David
Wilkie's praise, and that as her Majesty drove along in her State carriage,
she was seen laughingly submitting to the good offices of her beautiful
companion seeking with soft hands to loop up afresh the rebellious locks
which had broken loose. Leslie, from whom we have already quoted, gives an
anecdote of the Queen on her coronation-day, which serves at least to show
how deeply the youthfulness of their sovereign was impressed on the public
mind. He had been informed that she was very fond of dogs, and that she
possessed a favourite little spaniel which was always on the look-out for
her. She had been away from him longer than usual on this particular day.
When the State coach drove up to the palace on her return, she heard his
bark of joy in the hall. She cried, "There's Dash!" and seemed to forget
crown and sceptre in her girlish eagerness to greet her small friend.
[Footnote: In the list of Sir Edwin Landseer's pictures there is one, the
property of the Queen, which was painted in 1838. It includes "Hector,"
"Nero," "Dash," and "Lorey" (dogs and parrot).]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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