At Brighton there was an immense sacrifice of the then fashionable
and costly flower, the dahlia, no fewer than twenty thousand being used
for decorative purposes. But a sadder because a vain sacrifice on this
occasion, was of flowers of rhetoric. An address, the result of much
classical research and throes of poetic labor, and marked by the most
effusive loyalty, was to have been presented to Her Majesty at the gates
of the Pavilion, but by some mistake she passed in without waiting for
it.
About this time the Lunatic Asylums began to fill up. Within one week two
mad men were arrested, proved insane, and shut up for threatening the
life of the Queen and the Duchess of Kent. So Victoria's life was not all
arched over with dahlia-garlands, and strewn with roses, nor were her
subjects all Sunday-school scholars.
CHAPTER XI.
Banquet in Guildhall--Victoria's first Christmas at Windsor Castle as
Queen--Mrs. Newton Crosland's reminiscences--Coolness of Actors and
Quakers amid the general enthusiasm--Issue of the first gold Sovereigns
bearing Victoria's head.
On Lord Mayor's Day, the Queen went in state to dine with her brother-
monarch, the King of "Great London Town." It was a memorable, magnificent
occasion.
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