A small memento - sapphire ring, Queen Victoria's coronation gift to one of her train bearers

 

This sapphire and diamond ring is engraved inside the band with Queen Victoria's cypher and the date of the Coronation in 1838, and was given to one of her eight train bearers who assisted her on that momentous occasion. It no longer seems to be recorded to whom the particular ring was originally given, but it was added to the royal collection by Queen Mary in 1925. And while I haven't found any mention of this on the Royal Collection's website, on the inside of the ring, behind the central sapphire, there appears to be something of a translucent "window"... and would that be, to make the gift that much more personal, a tiny bit of the queen's hair behind?

Queen Victoria Receiving the Sacrament at her Coronation, 28 June 1838, by Charles Robert Leslie, 1838-39.

Charles Robert Leslie's painting shows the Queen receiving the Sacrament towards the latter part of her Coronation. Queen Victoria's half-sister Feodora, Princess of Leiningen, wrote to the Queen later that year that the moment depicted in the painting "was the most touching of the whole ceremony, and one that is always before me; human greatness bowing before greatness above, I saw many eyes that were filled with tears; and I shall never forget that picture."

Queen Victoria was delighted with the painting too. She thought "the group of my youthful trainbearers is excessively pretty.". She wrote to Princess Feodora that it was "the loveliest picture of the coronation you can imagine; it is to be for me, and is a great deal smaller than Hayter's picture [see below] …. He has got me so like … and all the others, he has got so like, I am charmed with it'. It was praised by contemporaries and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843.

Queen Victoria described her train bearers in her Journal, as "all dressed alike and beautifully" in white satin and silver tissue, with pink roses in their hair.

*

Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster, Abbey 28 June 1838’, by Sir George Hayter, 1839-40.

Sir George Hayter's painting captures the moment in the coronation when, after the crowning, "the people with loud and repeated shouts, will cry 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN': and immediately the Peers and Peeresses present will put on their Coronets" - in the queen's words, "a most beautiful and impressive moment." The queen is portrayed seated on the Coronation Chair, wearing the Imperial State Crown and holding in her right hand the Sceptre with the Cross and in her left the Sceptre with the Dove. 

Hayter was commissioned to record the scene less than a week before the coronation itself. The finished work depicts sixty-four of those participating or merely present during the ceremony, based on private sittings with the individuals in the two years following the event. The artist's family modelled the gowns and robes for him; his daughter Louisa modeled for the queen's hands.

*

The eight train bearers - who all seemed to find highly decorative - are nonetheless not terribly well represented in either of these coronation paintings. In Leslie's, only six appear - one almost entirely obscured - while in Hayter's a mere three make the cut.

*

The coronation day, from Queen Victoria's diary:

"I was awoke at four o'clock by the guns in the Park, and could not get much sleep afterwards on account of the noise of the people, bands, etc., etc. Got up at seven, feeling strong and well; the Park presented a curious spectacle, crowds of people up Constitution Hill, soldiers, Bands, etc.

"At ten I got into the State Coach with the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Albemarle and we began our Progress. It was a fine day, and the crowds of people exceeded what I have ever seen; many as there were the day I went to the City, it was nothing, nothing to the multitudes, the millions of my loyal subjects, who were assembled in every spot to witness the Procession. Their good humour and excessive loyalty was beyond everything, and I really cannot say how proud I feel to be the Queen of such a Nation. I was alarmed at times for fear that the people would be crushed and squeezed on account of the tremendous rush and pressure.

Detail from a commemorative panorama - over 3 metres (almost ten feet) long - showing the procession within Westminster Abbey and identifying the key figures.

"I reached the Abbey amid deafening cheers at a little after half-past eleven; I first went into a robing-room quite close to the entrance where I found my eight train-bearers: Lady Caroline Lennox, Lady Adelaide Paget, Lady Mary Talbot, Lady Fanny Cowper, Lady Wilhelmina Stanhope, Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, Lady Mary Grimston and Lady Louisa Jenkinson – all dressed alike and beautifully in white satin and silver tissue with wreaths of silver corn-ears in front, and a small one of pink roses around the plait behind, and pink roses in the trimmings of the dresses.

"Then followed all the various things; and last (of those things) the Crown being placed on my head – which was, I must own, a most beautiful impressive moment; all the Peers and Peeresses put on their coronets at the same instant. My excellent Lord Melbourne, who stood very close to me throughout the whole ceremony, was completely overcome at this moment, and very much affected; he gave me such a kind, and I may say fatherly look. The shouts, which were very great, the drums, the trumpets, the firing of the guns, all at the same instant, rendered the spectacle most imposing. The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain. At about half-past four I re-entered my carriage, the Crown on my head, and the Sceptre and Orb in my hands, and we proceeded the same way as we came – the crowds if possible having increased. The enthusiasm, affection, and loyalty were really touching, and I shall remember this day as the Proudest of my life! I came home at a little after six, really not feeling tired. At eight we dined."