And a little Lord Archbishop came, and a little prayer he said,
And then he popped a little crown upon her little head.”
It is curious to note that the Queen, when writing in her journal of the Coronation, just mentioned her mother as being there, but of Lehzen she wrote: “There was another most dear being present at this ceremony, in the box immediately above the Royal box and who witnessed all: it was my dearly beloved angelic Lehzen, whose eyes I caught when on the Throne, and we exchanged smiles.”
Lord Glenelg was Victoria’s Colonial Secretary for a period, and one imagines that he must have inspired Dickens with the idea of the Fat Boy, for we often hear of him as asleep at the wrong time. Like other people, he had to get up very early for the Coronation, and it was therefore not surprising that he fell asleep in his place in the Abbey. He awoke for the crowning, and duly put on his coronet, then promptly fell asleep again, and his head nodding, the heavy thing fell off with a clatter. Roused by the noise, he sat up, put his hand to his cranium, and cried aloud, “Oh! I have lost my nightcap!” The “nightcap” had rolled out of sight, and was not recovered until after the homage, but the story does not tell how he managed to offer his fealty without it.
This failing of Glenelg’s was constantly being referred to in the papers in jest or earnest. Here is a sample: “Is it true, Mel., that railroads rest upon sleepers?” asked Victoria. “Yes, your Majesty,” replied Mel. “Then pray take care that Lord Glenelg travels only by the mail coach, as if he goes by the railway he may be mistaken for a sleeper,” was the Queen’s entreaty. Another joke, even then somewhat time-worn, ran:—
“‘What, twelve!’ Lord Glenelg, waking cries;
‘How quick the time has passed!’
‘No wonder,’ little John replies,
‘You sleep so very fast.’”
Lyndhurst distinguished himself before the ceremony commenced by standing on some steps beyond the choir, and with eyeglass up scrutinising the Peers “and particularly the Peeresses” as they came from the entrance.