youth and age as in these noble ladies." Miss Martineau proceeds to remark
in the strongest and plainest terms on the unbecoming effect of full dress,
with "hair drawn to the top of the head, to allow the putting on of the
coronet" on these venerable matrons. She goes on to express her admiration
of a later generation of peeresses. "The younger were as lovely as the aged
were haggard.... About nine the first gleams of the sun slanted into the
Abbey and presently travelled down to the peeresses. I had never before
seen the full effect of diamonds. As the light travelled each peeress shone
like a rainbow. The brightness, vastness, and dreamy magnificence of the
scene produced a strange effect of exhaustion and sleepiness.... The great
guns told when the Queen had set forth, and there was renewed animation.
The Gold Sticks flitted about, there was tuning in the orchestra, and the
foreign ambassadors and their suites arrived in quick succession. Prince
Esterhazy crossing a bar of sunshine was the most prodigious rainbow of
all. He was covered with diamonds and pearls, and as he dangled his hat it
cast a dancing radiance all round.

"At half-past eleven the guns told that the Queen had arrived, but as there
was much to be done in the robing-room, there was a long pause before she
appeared."

A little after twelve the grand procession of the day entered the choir.
The Prebendaries and Dean of Westminster and Officers-at-Arms, the
Comptroller, Treasurer, Vice-Chamberlain, and Lord Steward of her Majesty's
Household, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord President, the Lord Chancellor of
Ireland, came first. When these gentlemen were peers their coronets were
carried by pages. The Treasurer bore the crimson bag with the medals; the
Vice-Chancellor was attended by an officer from the Jewel Office,
conveying, on a cushion, the ruby ring and the sword for the offering. Then
followed the Archbishops of Canterbury, York, and Armagh, with the Lord