arming,
cheerful, obliging, unaffected Queen in the world. The procession
was very handsome, and the Extraordinary Ambassadors produced
some gorgeous equipages. This sort of procession is incomparably
better than the old ceremonial which so much fuss was made about,
for the banquet would only have benefited the privileged few and
the rich, and for one person who would have witnessed the
procession on the platform five hundred enjoyed a sight of this.
In fact, the thing best worth seeing was the town itself, and the
countless multitudes through which the procession passed. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer told me that he had been informed
L200,000 had been paid for seats alone, and the number of people
who have flocked into London has been estimated at five hundred
thousand. It is said that a million have had a sight of the show
in one way or another. These numbers are possibly exaggerated,
but they really were prodigious. From Buckingham Palace to
Westminster Abbey, by the way they took, which must be two or
three miles in length, there was a dense mass of people; the
seats and benches were all full, every window was occupied, the
roofs of the houses were covered with spectators, for the most
part well dressed, and, from the great space through which they
were distributed, there was no extraordinary pressure, and
consequently no room for violence or ill-humour. In the evening I
met Prince Esterhazy, and asked him what the foreigners said. He
replied that they admired it all very much: 'Strogonoff and the
others don't like you, but they feel it, and it makes a great
impression on them; in fact, nothing can be seen like it in any
other country.' I went into the park, where the fair was going
on; a vast multitude, but all of the lower orders; not very
amusing. The great merit of this Coronation is, that so much has
been done for the people: to amuse and interest _them_ seems to
have been the principal object.

[13] She sent in the evening to inquire after Lord Rolle.

July 1st, 1838 {p.109}

[Page Head: COLERIDGE AND JOHN STERLING.]

This morning hit upon this stanza in Coleridge's 'Ode to
Tranquillity':--

'Who late and lingering seeks thy shrine
On him but seldom, power divine,
Thy spirit rests! Satiety
And sloth, poor counterfeits of thee,
Mock the tired worldling. Idle hope
And dire remembrance interlope
To vex the feverish slumbers of the mind:
The bubbl