The Washington times., 1901-10-08
King Edwards Coronation.

| It is a radical relief from a state of
| painful tension to learn that the cos
| tunes to be worn at the coronation of
| King Edward VII next year are not to
| be in any sense what in London would
be called ''hashy." but are to be re-
stricted severely. that they may conform
10 the solemnity and simplicity of the
proceedings. OF course. there will be
heralds in all the ornate magrificence
of tabard and doyleys hitched TO their
bugle horns, and they will look as if the
familiar but costly figures in pack of
cards, had stepped out of the deck
and appeared before the world in the
flesh and also in the dress of the
period. That is necessary-as necessary
as the cap of maintenance, the sceptre.
orb and KohinoOr diamond are to
neat and well regulated assumption of
royal and imperial dignity in formal
way.
Otherwise, the ensemble while it is
to be chromatic, is not to be polychro-
matte in any truly painful sense. For
example. the Earl Marshal, whose word
is law on coronation occasions. DEGREES
that there shall not be any sarish dis
play of imitation or bargain counter
pearls on the coronets of peers or peer
esses, even though they may have been
handed down in the families of the own
ers from the earliest history Of their
manufacture in Birmingham. All other
counterfeit jewels are equally barred. a
rule which we fear suggests the idea
that the prouiest nobility IN earth is
given to that sort of thing. But the
Earl Marshal tempers the wind to the
shorn lambs of the aristocracy by or
dering that its members VINO happen
to possess real and unquestioned jew els
shall equally omit them from their cor
onets, all which must be simply and
modestly of silver gilt, the caps of
crimson velvet, turned up with ermine,
with gold tassels on top" The last pro-
vision evidently is a concession to the
insular love of display and is one that
will be gratefully appreciated. For
anything appearing in the precept the
tassels do not need to be of genuine
gold bullion, but may be fire gilt super
posed on brass wire. This also is
concession, and in the interest of econ
omy
We observe with much satisfaction
that the Earl Marshal is particular in
the matter of robes and mantles to be
worn by the peeresses. Not by all of
them, because widows OF peers who
have married below that station in life
to which it pleased their former lords to
call them are distinctly barred from
dreary. whose present husband was the
former ones wealthy butler. and The
Marchioness of Nothington, who reIuar-
ried with 'Enry Bedwards, the million
aire soap maker. will weep and tear
their hair, for they will not be in it.
But those fortunate peeresses who are
such in their own right or have always
used sapolio on the escutcheons of their
coverture. are provided for In the hand
soonest and most detailed manner. Not
all alike, to be sure, because there are
different grades of nobility, and the
higher you ascend the more you get
Thus. a baroness must not wear a train
more than three feet long. viscountess
may add quarter of a yard to that,
countess can drag a yard and a half
after her. marchioness one and three
quarters yards, while a duchess is en-
titled to full two yards. These reglIa-
tions no doubt will be strictly observed
and enforced, for the British peerage
knows how great a stickler for correct
form their sovereign is, and the peer
esses are quite satisfied In gheir own
minds. were any Of them to efend ty
wearing longer trains than thu law al
lows, that a Gold Stick, Silver Stick, or
Gilt Stick would be in waiting with a
pair of shears to set them right
1t is a pleasant commentary upon the
delicacy which characteriZes and al
ways has characterized the processes
and proceedings of the royal and impe-
rial court that the Earl Marshal in his
pronunciamento, has nothing to say
concerning the material, enjewelment,
breadth, or thickness of the carriers
which the ladies are to wear. The chief
reason for this is that it is not the Earl
Marshars business. That authority is
vested in the Garter King -at-Arms. We
wait with much suppressed anxiety to
hear from him.