- The Queen's state ball, at Buckingham Palace, was magnificent. The
costume was that of Charles the Second's court and time ; only, with a patriotic eye to trade, many wore modern versions of the materials : Lord Overstone wore Honiton point lace, the Duke of Norfolk Spitalfields silver watered tissue. The costume was well supported, and grave officials entered heartily into the drama of dress : Lord Campbell appeared as Chief Justice Hale ; the Duke of Norfolk, Master of the Horse, as General Monk, Master of the Horse to Ring Charles ; the Duke of Wellington in the scarlet uniform of the day; the Duke of Cambridge as a cavalry officer ; Baron Brunnow as a Russian Ambassador of 1660 ; Prince Albert in a coat of cloth of gold, with bows of rose-coloured riband end jewellery, a bat trimmed with rose-coloured and white feathers, grey silk stockings. [But what waistcoat, what cuisses, good Court Newsman ; Alas ! we are not told.] The Queen's dress is thus described- " The skirt of the dress was composed of rich grey watered silk, trimmed with gold and silver late, and Ornamented with bows of rose-coloured ribands fastened by bouquets of diamonds. The front of the dress was open, and the wider skirt was made of cloth of gold, embroidered in a shawl pattern in silver, scolloped and trimmed with silver fringe. The gloves and shoes embroidered alternately with roses and fleurs de ha in gold. On the front of the body of the dress, fourSlarge pear-shaped emeralds of immense value."
The ladies were, of course, not less magnificent, but their dresses were leas different from the costume of our own day.
The company began to arrive about nine o'clock ; but nearly fifteen hundred invitations had been sent out, and the stream poured in for two hours. Before the ordinary dances, "national" dances were danced by quadrille parties in unifornadresses--English, Scotch, French, and Spanish. After those were performed, the Queen led off a Polonaise. A state sup- per was served, says our discreet Court Newsman, " at the usual hour."
Previous page
