Street, Pall Mall, Cockspur Street, and by Charing Cross, Whitehall, and
Parliament Street, reached the west door of Westminster Abbey--

Where royal heads receive the sacred gold.

At the Abbey door, at half-past eleven, the Queen was received by the great
officers of State, the noblemen bearing the regalia, the bishops carrying
the patina, the chalice, and the Bible. Her Majesty proceeded to the
robing-room, and there was a hush of expectation in the thronged interior,
where the great persons who were to play a part in the ceremony and the
privileged ticket-holders had been waiting patiently for long hours.

Underneath the galleries and below the platform were ranged lines of Foot
Guards. The platform (under the central tower) was the most conspicuous
object. It was covered with cloth of gold, and bore the chair of homage, or
throne, facing the altar. Farther on, within the altar-rails, was "St.
Edward's Chair," or the chair decorated by "William the Painter" for
Edward. Enclosed within it is the "Stone of Destiny," or Fatal Stone of
Scone--a sandy stone, supposed to have formed the pillow on which Jacob
slept at Bethel, and long used in the coronation of the Scotch kings. In
this chair all the kings of England, since the time of Edward I., have been
crowned. The altar was covered with massive gold plate.

The galleries of the Abbey were arranged for the members of the House of
Commons, the foreign ambassadors, the judges, Knights of the Bath, members
of the Corporation, &c. &c. The floor of the transepts was occupied by
benches for the peers and peeresses, who may be said to be in their glory
at a coronation; the space behind them was for the ticket-holders.

Harriet Martineau has preserved some of the splendours and "humours" of the