the prevalence of court dress had a curious effect. I was perpetually
taking whole groups of gentlemen for Quakers till I recollected myself.
The Earl Marshal's assistants, called Gold Sticks, looked well from above,
lightly flitting about in white breeches, silk stockings, blue laced
frocks, and white sashes.

'The throne, covered as was its footstool with cloth of gold, stood on an
elevation of four steps in front of the area. The first peeress took her
seat in the north transept opposite at a quarter to seven, and three of
the bishops came next. From that time the peers and their ladies arrived
faster and faster. Each peeress was conducted by two Gold Sticks, one of
whom handed her to her seat, and the other bore and arranged her train on
her lap, and saw that her coronet, footstool, and book were comfortably
placed.... About nine o'clock the first gleams of the sun started 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 lady
shone out like a rainbow. The brightness, vastness, and dreamy
magnificence of the scene produced a strange effect of exhaustion and
sleepiness.... The guns told when the Queen set forth, and there was
unusual 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 dazzling radiance all around.... At
half-past eleven the guns told that the Queen had arrived.'

An eye-witness says: 'The Queen came in as gay as a lark, and looking like
a girl on her birthday. However, this only lasted till she reached the
middle of the cross of the Abbey, at the foot of the throne. On her rising
from her knees before the "footstool," after her private devotions, the