Meantime the English people were expressing their pleasure at the news in various ways. The House of Commons voted the Prince of Wales a yearly income of £40,000 and his bride-to-be £10,000 for herself. Including the £40,000 from the Duchy of Cornwall this made a reasonable sum, while Sandringham and Marlborough House were allotted as Royal residences--requiring, however, much remodelling and improvement. Preparations of the most elaborate and splendid sort were made to welcome the lovely Danish Princess and into these arrangements the whole people seemed to throw themselves with mingled excitement and pleasure. In the little Copenhagen palace this turmoil was hardly known; the preparations certainly were not comprehended; and the quiet family were preparing in the most simple way for the great occasion--not the least excitement of the moment being the fact of their all going to England together. The wedding day was fixed for the 10th of March, and a few days before this the Princess left Denmark for her new home; passing over carpets of flowers strewn in her way by pressing and cheering crowds of affectionate people; receiving addresses everywhere, and smiles and tears and good wishes from simple peasants, who had decorated even their hedgerows and who made the departure look like a triumphal procession. Then King Frederick VII., presented her with a necklace of diamonds and a facsimile of the Dagmar Cross--that precious relic of early days and of the first Christian Queen of Denmark. The Princess arrived in the Thames on board the _Victoria and Albert_--which had been escorted from Flushing by a squadron of war-ships--on the morning of March 1st, and was welcomed at Gravesend by an outburst of enthusiasm which literally astounded her. A stately and formal reception she had, of course, anticipated but the splendour of what actually appeared, the elaborate character of the preparations, the surprising interest shewn by the people, were indeed revelations of the changed conditions into which the bride of the Heir Apparent had come. At Gravesend the dense crowds which lined the shores, or at least some portion of them, saw a sight which has been well described as pretty--"A timid girlish figure, dressed entirely in white, who appeared on the deck at her mother's side and then retiring to the cabin, was seen first at one window then at another, the bewildering face framed in a little white bonnet; the work of her own hands." HER RECEPTION IN ENGLAND