1831.] Coronation Banquet of Richard the Second. pointed by them, arranged the guests, settling all disputes of precedence, and rode round the hall during the banquet, preserving order.* The Earl of Derby stood on the right hand of the King the whole time of his being at table, holding the chief sword naked and erect. The Earl of Stafford carved before the King as deputy for the Duke of Lancaster in right of his Earldom of Lincoln. + In the midst of the banquet, the sound of trumpets was heard, and all eyes were turned towards the entrance of the Hall, when the Champion of England, Sir John Dymmok, "armed at all points," rode in on a fiery destrier or war horse, superbly caparisoned, his shield and lance borne before him. He came up to the table where the King was sitting, and handed him a paper containing a written challenge, which the King immediately ordered to be proclaimed aloud by the heralds to the effect which has already been noted in Sir John Dymmok's claim before the High Steward. Dinner being ended, the King re 119 tired to his chamber with the nobles, knights, and distinguished persons, who had assisted at the feast, and they were entertained till supper-time with solemn minstrelsy; supper being ended, fatigued with the ceremonies of the day, they retired to rest. The following day (Friday) the King and all his Court proceeded to St. Paul's Church to offer up solemn and devout prayers for the welfare and right rule of his realm, and for the souls of his grandfather Edward and his deceased progenitors. Thomas Bishop of Rochester afterwards preached a sermon before him. The train then returned to the palace, and having dined with the King, humbly craved leave to depart to their respective homes, which with much difficulty, real or apparent, according to the rules of court politeness of the age, was at length conceded. The whole ceremony, nearly as detailed, was enrolled by the hands of the Seneschal himself in the Chancery of the King, and forms the first entire official record of this august solemnity. * One of the most stately and striking circumstances of this grand spectacle in the Hall must have been to see the Knights on their barded horses riding round the tables, without any inconvenience to the assembled guests. +A MS. iu the British Museum will supply us with the service of an ancient Coronation feast, and as historians are silent on the subject of the dishes placed before Richard the Second and his feudatories, we may be allowed to fill up the deficiency from that of Henry VI. some years later. The particulars agree in a great measure, although not precisely, with the account of the same feast given in Fabian's Chronicle. At the first course (says the MS.) the Kyuge's herawdes of Armes came down from the scaffold, and they went before the Kyng's Chaumpyon Sir Phelp Dymok, that rode in the Hall bright as Seynt George, and he proclamed in the four quarters of the Hall that the King was a rightful Kyng and heyre to the Crowne of Englonde, and what manner of man that will say the contrary, he was ready to defend it, as his Knyght and his Champion, for by that office he holdeth his lande. Now the first course. The hore's head enarmed in a castell royall; frumenty with venysoun (vyaunde ryall); gylt groce (grouse); char swan, capon stewed, heron, grete pyke; red leche (soup), with a whyght lyon crowned therinne; custardys ryall (royal), with a ryall lybbard of gold set therein, holding a flour de lyce; fritour like a sonne, a floure de lyce therinne; a sotyltye (device), Seynt Edward and Seynt Lowes (Lewis), armed in their cootes of armes, &c. &c. The seconde course,-Viaunde blakely wreten (i. e. inscribed with the black letter character), and noted with Te Deum laudamus; pyg endored (gilt), crane, bytore (bittern), cony, chykyns endored, partrich, pecock, grete breine leche, with an antelope shynynge as gold, flampayne powdered with lybards and flowre de lyce of gold (the arms of France and England), fritour, custard, and a lybbardis head, with estrych (ostrich) feathers; a sotyltie, the Emperor and King, &c. The thirde course,— quynces in compost, blaundishere, (qu. blanc sucre?) venyson rosted, egrete, curlewys and cokks, plovers, quayles, snytes (snipes), grete byrdes, larkes, grete carpe, leche made with a vyolet colour, bake metes, chekyns powdered with losynges gylt with flowres of borage, fritours gryspe (crisp); a sotyltye, our Lady syttyng, and hyr chyld in hyr armes holding in every hand a crowne, and St. George knelyng on that oon syde, and St. Denyse on that other syde, presentyng the King to our Lady with this reasoun, "O blyssed Lady Christis Modyr deere," &c.—Bibl. Cotton, Nero, C. ix. fol. 173. The detail of red soup in which white lions are swimming, golden leopards immersed in custard, 1oast pigs gilt like gingerbread, fritters like the sun, the head of a pard crowned with ostrich feathers, and a haunch of venison inscribed with Te Deum laudamus, is sufficiently amusing. 120 The Crowns of the Kings of England. Reference to the Plate. The annexed engraving represents the Crowns of State or Ceremony which the Kings of England were accustomed to wear. It is well known that on certain great festivals they appeared attired in all the regalia of their office; hence the statements of our old historians that they were repeatedly crowned. No. 1 of the engraving is the Crown of Edward the Confessor, from his great seal; it is not improbable that it was fabricated by order of King Alfred, over-arched with gold wire-work, set with small stones, and adorned with two little bells. The knobs projecting on either side the Crown may be these identical bells. Speed's print of the Seal makes them, however, decidedly jewels, which perhaps they are. The sketch was made from an impression in my possession of the Confessor's Seal. With the old Saxon Crown, I believe, for many ages the monarchs of England were invested, until the desecrating rage of republican fanaticism destroyed it. No. 2, is another Crown of St. Edward, as represented on the Bayeux tapestry. No. 3, is the Crown worn by Henry II. and Richard I.; the authority is their monuments at Fontevraud. 4. The Crown of John, from his monument at Worcester. 5. That of Henry III. and Edward I. Authority, the monument of Hen. III. and that of Queen Eleanor. 6. Edward the Second's; his monument in Gloucester Cathedral. . 7. Richard the Second's, from his portrait at Westminster. 8. Henry the Fourth's, from his monument. 9. Henry the Fifth's, from a picture in the Royal collection. 10. Henry the Seventh's, from the painted window in St. Margaret's, Westminster. The Crowns commonly worn by the Kings of England appear to have taken the overarched or imperial form about the time of Henry VI. and there is little variation in the representation of their shape, until the regalia were destroyed. When the Crown was made anew for the Coronation of Charles II. the old form of the State Crown appears to have been in some degree imitated, but the arches, in very bad taste, were depressed, giving the cen [Aug. tre of the modern Crown the form of a saddle. 11. State Crown of Charles II. from Walker's Account of his Coronation. In the Inventory of the Crown Jewels taken by order of Parliament in 1649, the Crowns are mentioned as follow: * In the upper Jewel house in the Tower. "The imperial, Crowne of massy gold, weighing 71b. 6 ounces, valued at 1110l. The Queen's Crowne of massy gold, weighing 3lb. 10 ounces, 338l. 3s. 4d. A small Crowne found in an iron chest, formerly in Lord Cottington's charge [which, from other accounts,† appears to have been the Crown of Edward the Sixth], the gold, 73l. 16s. 8d. The diamonds, rubies, sapphires, &c. 355l. The foremencioned Crownes, since ye inventorie was taken, are, accordinge to order of Parliament, totallie broken and defaced" (as already noticed in p. 116). At Westminster were two Crowns, which were probably used at the Coronation, but not on ordinary occa sions : "Queen Edith's Crowne, formerly thought to be of massy gould, but upon triall found to be of silver gilt, enriched with garnetts, foule pearle, sapphires, and some odd stones, 50 ounces, valued at 167. King Alfred's Crowne of gould wyerworke, sett with slight stones, and 2 little bells, 79 oz. at 31. per ounce, 248l. 108." It is mentioned by Spelman, in his Life of King Alfred, that on the cabinet in which this last named Crown was kept, was an inscription to this effect: Hæc est principalior corona cum qua coronabantur reges Ælfredus, Edwardus," &c.; and Sir Henry adds, that it was "of very ancient work, with flowers adorned with stones of somewhat a plain setting." It is noticed by Mr. Taylor, as a circumstance corroborative of the belief that this was really King Alfred's Crown, that Robert of Gloucester, who wrote in the time of Henry the Third, mentions its preservation in his day: Pe pope Leon hym blessede, po he puder com, And pe kynges croune of þys lond, þat in þys lond zut ýs. * See Archæologia, vol. xv. p. 285. See the extracts from a diary written in 1649, in our vol. LXVIII. p. 470. 1831.] [121] LONDON BRIDGE. With an Engraving,* page 124. THE old Bridge of London, now devoted to a demolition as summary as the firm nature of ancient masonry will allow, is an edifice fraught with an extraordinary confluence and variety of interesting circumstances. The labour, industry, and expense, by which, in the place of modern science, the strength of a mighty element was resisted; the curiosities of its ancient architecture, the vicissitudes of its partial destructions and restorations, and those of the town and the population it formerly bore on its back; and, besides its own peculiar annals, the various historical events of importance with which it was connected, are matters sufficient for volumes. They have formed the subject of one, which displays very considerable research, and preserves much valuable information.t The advantages which the public gain by the sacrifice of this ancient friend, is a passage across the river fifty-four feet in width instead of forty-five, and of somewhat less ascent in itself, and less declivity in its approach. These slight accommodations have incurred an expense of two millions! The firmness of the old Bridge was least doubted by those best acquainted with ancient works; that the approaches might have been improved and the passage widened, without involving the destruction of the edifice, will find no disputant. It is well known that we should be the last to object to public works, not involving unnecessary destruction, on the mere ground of their expense; for we consider that money spent upon our own artificers, and diffused through them in our own country, to its present and future honour, ornament, and advantage, is expended in a manner most commendable, and most desirable. § But the disadvantages independent of expense, which are anticipated in the present case, are startling and alarming. As the water-way between the piers of the old Bridge was only five hundred and twenty-four feet, and between the starlings at low water only two hundred and thirtyone, whilst the water-way of the new Bridge will be six hundred and ninety feet at any period of the tide, it is concluded that the removal of this bar will produce very serious alterations in the state of the river above bridge. The late Sir H. C. Englefield, in his "Observations on the probable consequences of the demolition of London Bridge," infers, in the first place, from the different distances to which the spring and neap tides now flow, that the removal of London Bridge would occasion the tide to flow about three miles higher than it does at present. He deduces that the bridge, considered as a bar, has become from lapse of time an essential part of the river; that it prevents the tide from ever attaining so high a level above bridge as it otherwise would do; that it checks in a considerable degree the velocity of the flood tides; that the This is one of two views which were published in that very popular newspaper the Observer on the day before the opening of the Bridge. The water procession is not exactly represented; but the Bridges and surrounding buildings are very correctly delineated. +"Chronicles of London Bridge, 1827," 8vo, with many pretty woodcuts (reviewed in vol. xcvi. ii. 225). We should be glad to see a new edition, in which these interesting Chronicles were rendered more simple and intelligible by being divested of the paraphernalia of Mr. Barnaby Postern and Mr. Geoffrey Barbican; whose conversation, though intended to enliven, is a sad interruption to the narrative, and the more so, because, unlike that in Dr. Dibdin's Decameron, it is impossible to skip over it. A bridge at Glasgow, the whole of which is devoted to the road way, has galleries attached to the sides, which answer every purpose for foot passengers. § We are at length happy in the information that the new Palace in St. James's Park is about to be completed, the estimated expense of making it fit for habitation, being 70,0007. It were not worthy the Metropolis of Great Britain to be destitute of a Palace in some measure correspondent to the grandeur of the Empire, even if there were not immediate or constant occasion for its use. Temporary circumstances, and the convenience of the moment, have too much influenced the arrangements of our palaces. I Survey made in 1824 by William Knight, Esq. F.S.A. Assistant Engineer to the Works at the new Bridge. GENT. MAG. August, 1831. |