GREAT SEAL OF REALM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1938, Page 9

GREAT SEAL OF REALM

A PICTURESQUE CEREMONY. LONDON, March 12. There was a picturesque ceremony at the Privy Council meeting last week after the King had handed to Viscount Hailsham, Lord Chancellor, the new Great Seal of the Realm, which has been designed by Mr M. G. Kruger Gray.

Taking up a metal hammer, his Majesty “demasked” the old Great Seal, giving it a blow sufficient to render it void. Hhe then handed it, in accordance with traditional usage, to Lord Hailsham to retain as a family heirloom.

The Great Seal of the Realm is the subject of many a romantic tale. Lord Chancellor Eldon, in the reign of George HI., used to sleep with it under his pillow. One day his house caught fire and he buried it in the garden.for safety. Next day he could not remember where he had hidden it. Lord Eldon’s family joined in a frantic search at dawn, and it was found in a flower bed.

James 11., when he fled, threw the Great Seal into the Thames. But, by an extraordinary chance, fishermen drew it up in their nets near Lambeth and it was brought to the Prince of Orange, who by that time had been proclaimed King of England. In Richard l.’s reign the Seal was lost when the Chancellor, who was wearing it round his neck, fell into the sea and was drowned.

During the long reign of Queen Victoria the Great Seal had to be replaced four times, owing to its ornamentation having become worn.