CORONATION CURIOS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1131, 19 May 1911, Page 6

CORONATION CURIOS.

Many interesting things were said by Mrs. F. Wilde in the courso of an.illustrated address on tho "English Coronation Ceremony, Past and Present," delivered at Caxton Hall, in connection with the League hi Empire. Commenting on the various traditional features of the ceremony which are now omitted, Mrs. Wilde referred to J.ho Osculum Episcoporum, or Bishop's Kiss. In coronations of olden times it was customary for tho. Archbishop to kiss the King when he knelt to receive the Benediction. It was said that William IV was very anxious to leave out this part of the ceremony, but the Archbishop insisted. AYilliam IV is supposed to have been the only King who let is be known that he would gladly have done away with the whole- Coronation crrmeny. According to Mrs. Wilde's researches, only three ordinary personages have had the temerity to sit in the Coronation Chair, and (hey have all been boys of Westminster School. One, of course, was the famous Peter Abbott, who hid himself in the Abbey and slept in the chair. The record of his daring deed, scratched by himself on the back of the chair, can bo seen to this day. The other, cases were much more recent —they happened last year, in fact. One midday, when the Abbey was closed for an hour, two AVestminsbr boys concealed themselves in its' precincts and sat in the chair together, Their achievement might have gone unrecorded, but, unable to keep the secret, tho two boys told it to a verger, who told it to llrs. Wilde. In former days it was tho custom for the King to spend tho eve of his Coronation in the Tower of London, and from thero make his royal nrogross through the city. Charles II was tho last to do so. A (fimint ceremony which is still preserved is the redeeming of tho Sword of Justico after the King has presented it as an offering to the Altar. A hundred shillings is the traditional sum, and it was with a bag of a hundred new silver shillings that the Marquis of Londonderry redeemed the sword at King Eilward's Coronation.