In June, 1838, were issued the first gold sovereigns, bearing the head of
the Queen--the same spirited young head that we see now on all the modern
gold and silver pieces of the realm. That on the copper is a little
different, but all are pretty--so pretty that Her Majesty's loyal
subjects prefer them to all other likenesses, even poor men feeling that
they cannot have too many of them.
CHAPTER XII.
The Coronation.
The coronation was fixed for June 28, 1838 a little more than a year from
the accession.
The, Queen had been slightly troubled at the thought of some of the
antiquated forms of that grand and complicated ceremony--for instance,
the homage of the Peers, spiritual and temporal. As the rule stood, they
were all required after kneeling to her, and pledging their allegiance,
to rise and kiss her on the left cheek. She might be able to bear up
under the salutes of those holy old gentlemen, the archbishops and
bishops--but the anticipation of the kisses of all the temporal Peers,
old and young, was enough to appall her--there were six hundred of them.
So she issued a proclamation excusing the noble gentlemen from that
onerous duty, and at the coronation only the Royal Dukes, Sussex and
Cambridge, kissed the Queen's rosy cheek, by special kinship privilege.
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