He wrote: "I had been taking a walk over the interior of the
Park, gazing listlessly at the crowd of carriages as they rolled by. Just
as I was entering the arched gateway to depart, a sensation spread
through the crowd which filled that part of the promenade. 'The Queen!
the Queen!' flew from lip to lip. In an instant two outriders shot
through the gate; near Apsley House, followed by a barouche and four,
carrying the Queen and three of her suite. She sat on the right hand of
the back seat, leaning a good deal back. She was, as usual, dressed very
simply, in white, with a plain straw, or Leghorn bonnet, and her veil was
thrown aside. She carried a green parasol."
Ah, why _green_, O Queen? Later that afternoon he saw her again, going at
a slower rate, holding up that green parasol, bowing right and left and
smiling, as the crowd saluted and cheered. The Queen does not bow and
smile so much nowadays, but then she no longer carries a green parasol.
N. P. Willis also saw the young sovereign at the opera, and dashes off a
poet's vivid sketch of her:
"In her box to the left of me sat the Queen, keeping time with her fan to
the singing of Pauline Garcia, her favorite Minister, Lord Melbourne,
standing behind her chair, and her maids of honor grouped around her--
herself the youthful, smiling, admired sovereign of the most powerful
nation on earth.
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