Hereditary Claims in Connection with a Coronation.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1049, 24 June 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

Hereditary Claims in Connection with a Coronation.

SOME REASONABLE, MANY UNNECESSARY, A FEW RIDICULOUS. The Lord Grey de Ruth) n claims to carry the Kinjr e irolden spurs. The Lord of the Manor of Worksop claims the service of finding a glove for the King's riyht hand. The Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London claim to serve in the office of butler, to ag ist the chief butler, and that they shall sit at the table next the cupboard! Also that the Lord Mayor shall serve the King with wine out of a golden cup, and have the cup for his fee. The Mayor of Oxford also claims to help the butler. The Lord of the Isle of Man is bound to bring to the King two falcons on the day of his coronation. The Lord of the Manor of Huydon claims to hold the towel to the King washing before dinner. The Manor of Listoni, in Essex, is held by the service of making wafers for the King and Queen, and bringing them up to their table. The Lord of the Manor of Addington holds by the service of fmdinganian to make a mess called "gerout," in the King's kitchen, and bringing it to table in his own person. ()ver the ingredients of this delicacy, the name of which is so remark* »11 l«?. , :P. etuate< *» n ) u ch mystery hangs. In the time of Henry 111. William d'Aguilon "held the Manor by the service of making a dish called 'girauit,' or 'gyroun,' and if fat were put mit then was it called ' malpigernoun.'" There seems to be some reason for believing that "almonds, milk, the brawn of capons, sugar, spices, chicken par-boiled and chopped" formed, or were, at least, some of the ingredients of this dainty dish to set before a king." This is served up at the Koyal banquet in Westminster Ilall. Among the many singular claims that of the Earl of Lauderu i - the least curious. He is the hereditary bearer of Ensigns of War. It is more than unlikely that King bdward will ever lead his armies to battle-George 11. was the last British Sovereign to do so—but the Earl claims

that it is his privilege to carry the Ensign in the peaceful procession of Coronation day. Lord Lauderdale bears the ancient and distinguished Scots name of Maitland, and has a magnificent place in Scotland, about which there circles many a legend, lie is not, by the way, though many papers have stated it, a descendant of the famous Duke of Lauderdale whose initials closed the C-A-B-A L of our history-books at school, and who acquired the reputation in Scotland of being the cleverest and most corrupt statesman of his time. The Lauderdale Papers, however, show that it was the haughty Duchess of Lauderdale who was really approached with bribes, and that she readily aooepted them. Another claim is that of the Duke of Norfolk as Chief Butler of England. An almost melodramatic legend is attached to one of the holders of this office. The Albini family—a powerful race in their day —were appointed Hereditary Chief Butlers of England by William the Conqueror. One of them, a man of great prowess and handsome presence, had the bad luck to fascinate t.he Queens of both France and England. The former lady, on one of the visits of Albini to France, declared her passion, but the Anglo-Norman Baron coldly resisted her advances. The Queen, enraged at his scorn of her, determined on revenge, and, according to the story, led him into the garden, where, in an underground pit, was kept a fierce, untameable lion. With a dexterous push she thrust Albini into the den before he realised his danger. He was equal to the occasion. Wrapping a portion of his mantle round his arm, he thrust it into the lion's mouth and wrenched away the beast's tongue. This trophy he laid at the frail lady's feet and departed. From the Albinis, the office went to the Earls of Arundel, from whom the Duke of Norfolk is descended.

ing reading. The United States, being a power, gets and sends exactly the same kind of letters, but, unlike older countries, does not object to letting the public occasionally know their contents. The only occasion on which a sovereign head has received a letter from an " unsovereign " head on an equal footing is that on which President Lincoln, accepted the following from the theu Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII. Albert Edward, Prikcb of Walks, to the President of the United States of America, sendeth Greeting. My very Good Friend, The Queen, my beloved mother, has sustained an overwhelming loss, in the death of my most beloved and revered

THE APPROACH TO THE CORONATION CHAIR AT WESTMINSTER. The visitor mounts the stairs to the right and enters the Confeasors Chapel, where stands the chair beside the one made for Queen Mary, the wte of William 111. Close to it also are the long rusty sword and h»de-)K>und shield duplicated in the design above.

father, His Royal Highness The Piince Consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Duke of Saxony, which took place at Windsor Castle, &t ten minutes before eleven o'clock, on the night of the 14th ultimo, after a short illness, in the 43rd year of hisage. You can well conceive the utter desolation and grief of the Queen under the unexjweted bereavement which ller Majesty, Her Family, and Jier Country hate undergone. In these deeply afflicting circumstances I have been commanded lo write, in this one instance, ou l>ehalf of my disconsolate mother, for the purpose of announcing to you this fatal event. The Oueen is persuaded that you will kindly receive this notification as from herself, and that you will give Her your friendly sympathy under the heavy lrial with which it has pleaded Divine Providence to visit Her. And so I recommend you to the Protection of The Almighty Osborne House, the sth day of January, 1W32. Your very Good Friend, ALBEUT EDWARD.