orb in the left hand.... It was about a quarter to four o'clock when the
royal procession passed through the nave, in the same order as before, at
the conclusion of the ceremony in the Abbey."

The coronation lasted three hours, and must have been attended with great
fatigue of mind and body to the young girl who bore the burden of the
honours. Even the mere spectators, who, to be sure, had been in their
places from dawn of day, the moment the stimulus of excitement was removed,
awoke to their desperate weariness. "I watched her (the Queen) out at the
doors," said Harriet Martineau, "and then became aware how fearfully
fatigued I was. I never remember anything like it. While waiting in the
passages and between the barriers, several ladies sat or lay down on the
ground. I did not like to sink down in dust half a foot deep, to the
spoiling of my dress and the loss of my self-respect, but it was really a
terrible waiting till my brothers appeared at the end of the barrier."

But the day's business was not ended for the great world, high and low. The
return of the procession, though the line was broken, had the special
attraction that the Queen wore her crown, and the Peers and Peeresses their
coronets. The Queen's crown was a mass of brilliants, relieved here and
there by a large ruby or emerald, encircling a purple velvet cap. Among the
stories told of the coronation, foremost and favourite of which was the
misadventure of poor Lord Rolle, and the pretty gentle way in which the
young Queen did her best to help the sufferer; an incident was reported
which might have had its foundation in the difficulties described by Miss
Martineau as besetting the fair Peeress in the Abbey. It was said that the
Queen's crown was too cumbrous, and disturbed the arrangement of those soft
braids of hair, the simple, modest fashion of which called forth Sir David
Wilkie's praise, and that as her Majesty drove along in her State carriage,
she was seen laughingly submitting to the good offices of her beautiful