Crowning the King.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 102, 29 January 1901, Page 1

Crowning the King.

Modern ideas and discoveries are gradually driving out old customs from amongst us, but the quaint forms observed in crowning a British Sovereign will probably last as long as Britain endures. The ritual employed is of extreme antiquity. It is usually described as that ot King Ethelred, but is probably still older. At the coronation of Queen Viatoria, certain of the prayers were the same as those used at the coronation of Ethel red, nearly nine hundred years before. The coronation ceremony of the "century may be said to be divided into three principaljmrts,jthe oath, the anointing, and the actual crowning. At one time a fourth part was the election or recognition by the people of their new king.

At the time of the Commonwealth, all articles used for ceremonials ? connected with the Sovereign were destroyed by the Puritanical rulers, with the exception .of the anointing spoon. The bowl of tin’s was found in the reign of Charles 11.. and a handle fitted into it. The holy oil used in the anointing ceremony is contained in a gold vessel of the shape of a dove. The following is the official account of the coronation of Queen Victoria, a form which will njo doubt be followed in tho coronation of King Edward VII ;—■

The Queen will then sit down in King Edward’s chair, wherein she will be anointed. Four Knights of the Gaidar hold over her a rich pall of silk or cloth of .gold. The anthem being concluded, the Dean of Westminster, taking the ampulla (oil vessel) and spoon from the altar, pours some of the oil into the spoon and bands it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who anointeth the Queen in the form of a cross on the crown ox the bead and on the palm of both hands, saying ; “Bo tho'a anointed with- holy ‘oil. as Kings, priesr.s-and prophets were anointed." According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the anointing of the royal hands was omitted. Another curious ceremony is tha presentation of the spurs to make the sovereign a knight if not already one. The spurs were at one time put on the heels iof the sovereigns, but latterly they have been handed to the ruler, who returns them to the altar. Tha sword of state was also handed to Queen Victoria, who, rising up and going to the altar, offers the sword there in tbo scabbard, delivering it to the Archbishop, who places it on the altar; the Queen then returns and sits down in King Edward’s chair, and the Lord who first received the sword oftereth the price for it, and having thus redeemed it, receiveth it from oft the altar by the Dean of Westminster and draweth it out of the Scabbard and carries it naked before Her Majesty during the rest of the solemnity. The price of the redemption of the sword has always been a hundred shillings. Tbo coronation takes place while the sovereign is seated in King Edward’s chair. This chair was specially constructed for the reception of the famous stone which Edward I. brought from. Scotland in 1296, and has been constantly used at coronations . ever - since. This famous atone is supposed to “ be that on which Jacob laid his headj when he saw the heavenly ladder. This is tfie legendary history of the stone many Scottish kings ;, were crowned at Scone prior to 1296, The chair with the stone underneath was used at the occasion of the Queen’s Jubilee, aud again at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Queen Victoria as. hot crowned till June 28, 1838, upwards of a year after she succeeded ,to the throne, and we can- have no idea yet when King Edward VII. will be .. required to go through this final ceremony in bis being made .king, ' probably <f