tuousness of the air, at a period when any remarkable event happens; there are few of the annalists of the reign of Anne that did not comment on the bright day of her accession, on the glorious shining forth of the sun, and predict a happy reign from the pleasantness of the weather. The contrast was the greater from the long years of inclemency which had marked the reign of William and Mary, and had continued during the solitary reign of the former, adding famine to the evils of his continuous wars.

Another early courtier, at this royal levée, was lord Dartmouth, who affected no grimace of sorrow for the decease of the queen's predecessor. He had not forgotten or forgiven the death of his father, in the grim fortress of the Tower, where he had been immured on the mere warrant of queen Mary, who suspected him of attachment to his old admiral, her deposed father; although he had given greater proof of his love to his religion and country, by surrendering the fleet without bloodshed, when the English nation declared against James II.

1

Lord

Dartmouth, the son, was certainly not a partisan of James; for he has not spared him, although he exposed the falsehoods told by his enemies. He recognised queen Anne as constitutional sovereign, by telling her "his joy at her accession was, indeed, without the least alloy." The queen replied, "that she did sincerely believe him." All these visits to royalty took place, while the privy-council was collecting, in which the new queen was solemnly recognised, and at which she presided, about noon the same day, her majesty being dressed in deep mourning for the demise of her father.

The members of both houses of parliament met that morning, although it was Sunday; and Mr. Secretary Vernon notified the death of William III. to the house of commons. Mr. Granville rose, after the secretary had finished his announcement, and commenced what Anne's opponents called a Tory gratulation, beginning with "Sir, we have lost a great king, and we have got a most gracious queen. When all the speeches, proper for the occasion, were spoken, the houses of lords and commons went up with

1 Dartmouth's Notes to Burnet's Own Times, vol. v. p. 11.
2 Speaker Onslow's Notes on Burnet's Own Times, vol. v. p. 2.

addresses of congratulation to the queen, on her accession.1

Anne received these august assemblies with much grace and dignity, and her greatest accomplishment was displayed in the answers she gave. As constitutional queen, of course, the matter she spoke was in the words of her ministers: her manner and tone of voice were her own. The sweetness of her voice in utterance had, when a girl, so much pleased her uncle, Charles II., that he ordered Mrs. Betterton, the famous actress, to teach her to speak; "which had been done," says lord Dartmouth, "with such success, that even, on this occasion, it was a real pleasure to hear her, though she had a bashfulness that made it very uneasy to herself to say much in public." "I have heard the queen speak from the throne," observes speaker Onslow, (long after she had passed away, therefore the commendation could not be flattery,) " and she had all that bishop Burnet and others have noticed of the sweetness of her voice and manner. I never saw an audience more affected: it was a sort of charm.” There was no little tact in king Charles's directions to have the sweet voice of the princess, his niece, cultivated for the science of elocution, rather than for singing, since a royal personage sways more hearts by speaking than by singing.

Notwithstanding the multifarious employments and agitations of that memorable Sunday of her accession, the queen attended divine service at St. James's Chapel, and heard a long sermon preached by Burnet. Her majesty was, in the afternoon, proclaimed before the gates of St. James's Palace, at Temple Bar, and in Cheapside.*

The day of the queen's accession would have been one of great trial to a woman of a more sensitive nature, for she had to retire to the suite of apartments once occupied by her son, the young duke of Gloucester, at St. James's Palace, while her private apartments were hung with black, as decent mourning for king William. A general mourning was ordered by her privy council for the recently deceased king. To mark the difference between the black she wore

According to "The Postboy" newspaper (Brit. Museum), these addresses were offered the evening of Anne's accession.

2 Speaker Onslow's Notes to Burnet's Own Times, vol. v. p. 2.
4 Ibid,

3 Gazette.

5 Roger Coke's Detection, vol. iii.

pre

for her parent, and the court-mourning she assumed for her brother-in-law, the queen chose to mourn for her decessor in purple; and she accordingly assumed a dress of that hue on the day after his decease.

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occa

The queen went in solemn state to the house of lords, March 11; she was attended in her coach by the countess of Marlborough and two other ladies. Her majesty wore a star on her breast, and seated herself on her throne in her royal robes; it is said by the prints of the day that she wore the crown of St. Edward on her head, but this was a mistake. The commons were sent for, and the queen addressed them in that sweet, thrilling voice which has before been. described. Her speech, as constitutional queen, being the composition of her ministers, there is no sion to load her personal life with the whole substance. The only remarkable points in it were, that it slid dexterously past all mention of her brother, and earnestly recommended the attainment of union between England and Scotland. She concluded with these words-"As I know my own heart to be entirely English, I can very sincerely assure you there is not anything you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England, and you shall always find me a strict and religious observer of my word."

There is in the corridor gallery, at Windsor Castle, a picture of queen Anne opening her first parliament. Lady Marlborough stands nearly behind her majesty, and the great officers of state are, as now, ranged round the throne; but it does not appear that the custom had begun, of admitting ladies into the body of the house to view the pageant-at least, none appear to grace the scene. Her majesty returned in her coach, accompanied by his royal highness, prince George, to her palace of St. James; the sword was carried before her by the earl of Marlborough. The queen, out of respect to the memory of her predecessor and the season of Lent, ordered the theatres to be shut till after her coronation.* It was not until March 14, that an order was issued by council to change the royal names in the prayer-book; and

1 Roger Coke's Detection, vol. iii., and London Gazette and Postboy.
Postboy, March 12, 1702.
3 Ibid., March 12, 1701-2.
4 Boyer's Annals of queen Anne, 1702.

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instead of "our sovereign lord, king William," to insert our sovereign lady, queen Anne."

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3

Scotland was still a separate kingdom. The Scotch council was summoned, March 13, and Anne was proclaimed queen_of Scotland by the lord Lyon, king at arms, as Ânne I. The churches in Edinburgh were hung with black for William's death. The queen went to Windsor while St. James's Palace was completely hung with black. She announced her coronation for April 23, the anniversary of that of her unfortunate father; declaring, at the same time, that the very deep mourning was to cease after that ceremony. "For the encouragement of our English silks, called a-la-modes," says a periodical of the day, "his royal highness, the prince of Denmark, and the nobility, appear in mourning hat-bands made of that silk, to bring the same in fashion in the place of crape, which are made in the pope's country, whither we send our money for them." Before the first week of queen Anne's reign had expired, her majesty took the opportunity of fulfilling her oft baffled intention of causing the earl of Marlborough to be elected a knight of the Garter.

The commons voted her majesty the same revenue that had been granted "to king William, of blessed memory;" and the speaker and the members of the house of commons took the oath to her, repudiating the hopes of the pretended prince of Wales, for the security of her majesty's person and that of the crown in the protestant line. The queen went to the house of lords, March 30, with the usual ceremonies, and gave her assent to the bills for her household, revenue, coin, &c., on which occasion she made the following remarkable speech: as the retrenchments she alluded to were wholly personal, it may be considered the speech emanated from her own will::

"I will straiten myself in my own expenses, rather than not contribute all I can to my subjects' ease and relief. It is probable the revenue may fall short of what it has formerly produced; however, I will give directions that 100,000l. be applied to the public service in this year out of the revenue you have so unanimously given me." 5

The thanks of the house of commons were highly laudatory, as may be supposed, on such a foundation.

1 Postboy.

3 London Post.

2 Ibid.

4 The Postman, March 19, 1701-2. 5 Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, 1702.

The body of king William had been, meantime, privately removed from the palace where he breathed his last, to the prince's chamber at Westminster, where it was embalmed and laid in state. The queen and prince George of Denmark having taken immediate possession of the royal apartments at Kensington Palace,' the measure was murmured at by the household of William; there certainly was something repugnant to delicacy in the proceeding. The room where the king died was, however, left just in the same state as when he breathed his last, for many years of the eighteenth century.

All the Dutch colony at Kensington Palace were in a state of high discontent, almost amounting to mutiny; they were excessively displeased at everything done in regard to their king's remains, in which bishop Burnet entirely concurred. Although in his history, he threw disgusting scandals and reproaches on the character of the royal defunct, he, too, vented his discontent at the accession of Anne, by grumbling at William III.'s funeral; in his usual phrase, "Twas scarce decent." Perhaps the ire of the departed monarch, could he have expressed an opinion on his own obsequies, would have been chiefly excited at the fact that his despised and detested kinsman, George of Denmark, thought proper to officiate as chief mourner-a function from which, although his due place, he had been sedulously debarred by king William, at the funeral of queen Mary.

Great debates had previously taken place in the privy council, whether the late king should be publicly or privately buried; the latter was decided on. The burial took place on Sunday, April 12, at midnight. The procession began from Kensington as if the royal corpse had actually been there; the funeral train followed an open chariot with the wax effigy (still in Westminster Abbey) seated as if over the corpse and coffin, which were only introduced when the mourners arrived at Westminster Palace. The pall was borne by six dukes; his royal highness, George of Denmark, was chief mourner, supported by two dukes. The body was deposited in Henry VIII.'s Chapel while the service was performed, and afterwards interred in the same vault with his late consort, queen Mary II., near the coffin of their uncle, Charles II.

1

1 Pyne's Palaces. (Kensington.)

2 Life of King William III.