How the Queen Dines.

Southland Times, Issue 9383, 24 November 1886, Page 3

How the Queen Dines.

Any of her Maj s'y's subjects who may desire to know tbe ceremonial of Queen Victoria's dinner- table can hear all about it from a French journalist. All the details are interesting, »nd some of them surprising. Exactly fifteen minutes before the dinnerhour the guests are ranged in a semi-circle, the band plays ( The Boast Beef of Old England,' aad to thia appropriate and characteristic mnsic the Queen enters the presenceroom ; she shakes hands with the ladies and salutes tbe gentlemen. Then she passes to the dining-room, taking precedence of all her Kuesti. As she looks down the table she fiada her own family (so many of them as there are; aU ranged on her left, and the guests of the day seated oo her light hand. At this me3l the Queen always wears gloves, unless it should be a State meal. On two points the inles of Court etiquette are very strict. No one is allowed to address a remark to Her Majesty directly, .f a guest th nks he has something which may interest the Royal hostess he mentions it to a fellow guest. The later discusses it, and so, fil tered and at second band, it reaches tbe Quetsn. There ia no rale, howerer, wbiclx prevents the Q leen of Knglsnd from asking any question she like 3 of RDy guest at the table. One otner regulation bears peremptorily on the invited. Instantly the Qaeen hns finished with a course every guest r^ table must also end. Curiously enough, this French chronicler gives no details of what happens when the Lord Major dines at Windsor.