The Public Life of Queen VictoriaMcGilchrist, John
History
The Public Life of Queen Victoria
McGilchrist, John
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
Monday, the 10th, was the day appointed for the wedding, which was
magnificently celebrated in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace. On the
morning of that day a larger crowd assembled in St. James's Park and its
approaches than had been collected together in the metropolis since the
rejoicings at the visit of the Allied Sovereigns in 1814. Not even the
extreme inclemency of the weather abated either the patience or enthusiasm
of the multitude. After the ladies and gentlemen of the Households of the
Queen and the Prince had been driven along the Mall from the palace of
residence to the palace of state, and the carriages which conveyed them
had returned, the bridegroom was notified that all was in readiness for
his departure. He set out, dressed as a British field-marshal, and with
all the insignia of the Garter, the jewels of which had been a personal
present from the Queen, having on one side his father and on the other his
brother, both in military uniforms. He entered his carriage amid
tremendous cheers, and the enthusiastic waving of handkerchiefs by a bevy
of ladies privileged to stand in the grand lobbies of the palace, and was
escorted to the chapel by a squadron of the Life Guards. On the return of
the carriages which carried the Prince and his company, Her Majesty was
in turn apprised that all was in readiness for her departure. She, too,
was enthusiastically received, "but her eye was bent principally upon the
ground." In the same carriage with the Queen rode the Duchesses of Kent
and Sutherland. It was noticed as she drove along that she was extremely
pale, and looked very anxious, though two or three incidents in the crowd
caused her to smile.
On her arrival at her palace of St. James's, the Queen was conducted to
the Presence Chamber, where she remained with her maids-of-honour and
trainbearers, awaiting the Lord Chamberlain's summons to the altar.
Meanwhile, the colonnade within the palace, along which the bridal
procession had to pass and repass, had been filled since early morn by the
elite of England's rank and beauty. Each side of the way was a parterre of
white robes, white relieved with blue, white and green, amber, crimson,
purple, fawn, and stone colour. All wore wedding favours of lace,
orange-flower blossoms, or silver bullion, some of great size, and many in
most exquisite taste. Most of the gentlemen were in court dress; and the
scene during the patient hours of waiting was made picturesque by the
passing to and fro in various garbs of burly yeomen of the guard, armed
with their massive halberts, slight-built gentlemen-at-arms, with
partisans of equal slightness; elderly pages of state, and pretty pages of
honour; officers of the Lord Chamberlain, and officers of the Woods and
Forests; heralds all embroidery, and cuirassiers in polished steel;
prelates in their rochets, and priests in their stoles, and singing boys
in their surplices of virgin white.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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