The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-01
QUAINT CORONATION CUSTOMS
MEANING OF ACTS TO BE DONE IN
GROWING EDWARD.

and Beliefs Ancient Privileges
Revived-Signifcan of the Nat
iOnaI RegaIia.
London Letter in New York Sun.
In order to understand and appreci-
ate the ceremony to take place next
month in Westminster Abbey, it is
necessary to enter into some explana-
ton of the origin and significance of
! its peculiar features. Beginning then,
let us say, with the eve of corona
ton day. the course of events will be
as follows:
The national regalia will be brought
to the Abbey and deposited in the care
Of the dean and chapter of West
| minister some time on the day preced-
ing the coronation. During the night
these jewels will occupy the Jerusalem
Chamber, where they will be watched
by His Majesty's Yeomen of the Guard.
This practice is a survival of the
days when one among the many privi-
leges appertaining to Westminster Alb
hey consisted in the guardianship of
the regalia. The right disappeared in
Cromwell's time when the treasury
containing the ancient medieval re-
gala was rified and robbed by ennis
saries of the Long Parliament.
With the advent of Charles II and
the Restoration no attempt was made
to revive this privilege, and from that
/ time forward the regalia have been
| housed in a jewel house within the
waals of the Tower of London. Still
the old connection with Westminster
| continues to exist and it makes its APP
| pearance at coronation after corona
ton in this somewhat shadowy form.
|. One of the first features in the pro-
ceedings of the great day will consist
in the delivery of the regalia by the
dean and chapter into the hands of
certain great officers of state and other
| noblemen who have been appointed
| by direct command of the King, to
| bear them in the Abbey during the
procession and otherwise to be respon-
sible for them. This ceremony will
| take place in a pavilion, now in pro-
cess of erection, just outside the west
ern portals of the Abbey church.
Principally at the hour of IL the royal
! procession will make it's appearance
! through the outermost doors of the Abb
| hey. 1t will be headed by the Dean
| and Canons of Westminster, whose
| time-honored privilege it is to lead all
| professions, no matter on what oc-
casion or how distinguished the per-
| sons composing them may happen to
| be, up to the choir of their church.
Ever since the coronation of James
II it has been the privilege of the
! Kings Scholars of the ancient school
| dedicated to st. Peter, and connected
| with Westminster Abbey to take a
prominent part in these ceremonies.
| These Kings Scholars, numbering for
| ty or fifty, under the control of their
| head master and under master, will
be seated in lofty gallery just beyond
| the entrance to the choir. AS the
| Queen with her train of noble ladies
! passes beneath the choir screen a shrill
| chorus of treble voices will be heard
cheering her in the Latin tongue:
"Vivat Regina Alexandria" being re-
! peated three time over. The same
quaint ceremonial will be used to greet
the arrival of King Edward, and the
boys voices will once more be uplift-
cd in the shout "Vivat Rex Edwardus'
The King and Queen, having seated
themselves on the large square plat
form, usually termed the theater, the
first and almost the most striking OF
all the ceremonies of the coronation
| service takes place. 1t is termed the
recognition and it dates from the high
est antiquity.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, vest
! ed in his cope, takes up his stand
upon the theater and faces the east
ern side where he utters a formula to
be repeated hereafter. Together with
the Primate there go a number of other
| high state officials. the Lord High
Chancellor, the Lord Great Chamber
lain. the Lord High Constable, and the
Earl Marshal. The chief member OF
| the Ancient College of Heralds, who is
known as Garter King of Arms, walks
in front of them.
This group then marches all round
the theater, first to the south. then tC
the west. and lastly to the north. Al
each of the four quarters of the COM
pass, the same formula is repeated.
! In the meantime the King remains
standing by his seat which is known
as the chair of recognition, and as the
little procession makes its way frs
to one side then to another of the the
! alter. he turns IN the same direction
| Four. times over then will Archbishop
! Temple address himself to the assem-.
bled congregation in the following
| words:
"Sirs, I here present unto you King
Edward, the undoubted King of this
realm: Wherefore. all you who are
come this day 20 do your homage, are
you willing to do the same?"
After each exclamation the people cry
ont the words God save King Ed
ward" and at the conclusion of tho
ceremony a brilliant fanfare will b.
blown by the sergeant trumpeter anC
his assistant musicians upon the state
trumpets. It is not difficult to per
ceive that this curious ceremony o
recognition does in reality represen
the ancient popular right of the com.
mohalty of England to express theil
voice in the choice of a new monarch.
Once the reception was fraught witt
disaster. This took place at the coro.
nation of Charles 1. For when Arch
bishop Abbott addressed himself to the
people in the usual manner on the
eastern side of the theater, frs of al
he was met with strange and almost
deathlike silence. The reason has never
been given, but the fact was suffi-
cient to cast a highly significant gloom
over the coronation of that unlucky
and most Inflated sovereign.
AS soon as the recognition has beer
duly performed the various persons
who have been carrying the different
articles of the regalia bring them for
ward and deliver them into the hands
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who
passes them over in his turn to the
Dean of Westminster after which
they are all carefully placed upon the
high altar OF the Abbey.
The regalia consist of the grand
crowd of ST. Edward, carried on a
cloth of-gold cushion by the Lord High
Steward: the crown used at the cor
onation of the Queen. the Bible, pater
and chalice. which are borne by three