The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 1 of 4Wilson, Robert
History
The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 1 of 4
Wilson, Robert
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901; Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
The new sovereign was proclaimed under the title of “Alexandrina
Victoria”; but the first name has not been officially used since that
day. The appearance of the Queen at one of the windows of St. James’s
Palace, on the morning of June 21st, was greeted with immense enthusiasm
by a vast crowd of people who had assembled to hear the Proclamation
read, but who did not anticipate that the sovereign would present
herself. At ten o’clock, the guns in the Park fired a salute, and
immediately afterwards her Majesty stood conspicuously before her
subjects. Dressed very simply in deep mourning, her fair hair and clear
complexion came out the more effectively for their black surroundings.
With visible emotion, and with her face bathed in tears, she listened to
the reading of the Proclamation, supported by Lord Melbourne on the one
side, and by Lord Lansdowne on the other, both dressed in court costume;
while close at hand was the Duchess of Kent. The court-yard of
the Palace was filled with a brilliant assemblage of high
functionaries, consisting of Garter King-at-Arms, heralds and
pursuivants, officers-of-arms on horseback, sergeants-at-arms, the
sergeant-trumpeter, the Knights-Marshal and their men, the Duke of
Norfolk as Earl-Marshal of England, and others--all clad in the
picturesque dresses and wearing the insignia of their offices. At the
conclusion of the Proclamation the Queen threw herself into the arms of
her mother, and gave free vent to her feelings, while the band played
the National Anthem, the Park and Tower guns discharged their salvos,
and the spectators burst into repeated acclamations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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