Page:King Edward VII, his life & reign; the record of a noble career 1.djvu/34

 and dedicated, adorned on each side of the choir, the sovereign's and the prince's, with the banners overhanging the stalls of the knights, it was most fitting that another royal Edward should be enrolled in the service of ChristChrist. [sic]

The imposing rite began at 10 o'clock in the morning of St. Paul's Day, January 25, 1842, in presence of the Queen and her consort, ambassadors, high officers of State, Court officials, Knights of the Garter wearing the full insignia of the Order, dignitaries of the Church, and many great ladies gorgeously arrayed. In the Queen's procession, where the victor of Waterloo bore the sword of state before his sovereign and Prince Albert, with the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward on either side, walked the royal dukes, uncles of the Queen, and the princely cousins from Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Weimar. The chief Church officials acting at the grand ceremony were Dr. Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Edward Vernon Harcourt, Archbishop of York, attended by other prelates. Great preparations, involving the labour of many weeks, had been made inside the chapel. The carved work shone with new polish. A rich purple carpet covered the floor of the choir, from the front stalls of which a platform was laid down to the rails of the communion table. On this platform, for the chief royal personages, stood six ample chairs, covered with purple silk bearing the Garter star. The Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Sumner, Prelate of the Order, and the Dean of Windsor, Registrar, wore their mantles of rich velvet, and the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Bagot, Chancellor of the Order, was conspicuous in a long crimson cloak. The font, filled, as usual on great occasions, with water from the River Jordan, stood on a purple cushion, and was a composite structure including golden ware used at the baptism of Charles the Second and of the Princess Royal.

The young heir apparent, who is described by the chief reporter present as behaving during the ceremony "with princely decorum", was carried by his nurse from the chapter-house to the chapel, with the Lord Chamberlain and other high officials as escort. The Duchess of Buccleuch, Mistress of the Robes, took