THE QUEEN AMONG THE BLUE-COAT BOYS. ROYAL visits have of
late made many persons proud and happy. The Duke of Buckingham stalks with more complacency through the stately apartments of Stowe, which a Queen hath graced with her presence. Ever since her Majesty condescended to open the Royal Exchange in person, Sir Peter Laurie in his dreams " dhely nightly " rides along Cheapside before the Royal carriage-
" Without a peer he rideth, and his gallant steed doth go Beneath its stately master with a stately step and slow."
The very pigs of Smithfield betray a dim consciousness of some unwonted honour paid to them. But upon none will the con- descension of the Sovereign have a more lasting and grateful impression than upon the blue-backed and yellow-legged inmates, of Christchurch Hospital.
The night when the thin commons of these young cloisterers were swallowed untested while Royalty looked on, will be a lasting acquisition to the legends of the wards. For long years the wondering new comers will prick up their ears to catch from nurse or older playmate the story of the Royal visit. The boy who read the prayers and the boys who wrote out the hymns in fair and clerkly characters will be enrolled among the heroes of the institution. And lasting will be the jokes at the awkward- ness of those who had to pass before Majesty encumbered with the fragments, baskets, and trenchers, of their frugal meal. The simple majesty of the Queen and her consort will be recorded as lending a finishing-grace to these reminiscences ; and in the eyes of successive generations of Blue-coat Boys, their Hall will have been dignified almost to sanctity by this Queenly avatar. The legend of King Pippin will be scarcely so attractive as the le- gend of Victoria looking on while the boys took their suppers- She will be enshrined among the patron saints of the Hospital beside the pious Boy-King who founded it. There is a faith in royalty still lingering in the breasts of little children, which grown-up men and women—even those who are loyal upon principle—seem to have lost in this generation. It is wise in sovereigns to let little children come to them; for such= near approach stamps them loyal for life. And among those strangely-accoutred young monks there are hearts and heads- whose attachment it may be worth the while even of royalty to conciliate. A Blue-coat Boy was one of the first and worthiest who wore the Anglican mitre in India; and at this day Blue- coat Boys are doing the state good service by laud and sea, in arms and as civilians. There is no extravagance in assuming that future Middletons may have defiled before the Queen among the Grecians, and that among King Charles's mathematicians may be one whom a desire to attract the notice of the Majesty upon which he has gazed with respect and wonder in his boyhood, may rouse to emulate Nelson on the quarter-deck.
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