ABSTRACT
Republican critics of royal ceremonial described it as anachronistic and irrational like the institution of monarchy itself, but had to acknowledge that, despite the ‘march of the mind’, show held an emotional appeal for the people. The 1860s have been seen as a turning-point in which the retirement of the Queen prompted novel calls, especially in the writings of Walter Bagehot, for a more magnificent and public monarchy. As historians have observed, it was in the 1870s and 1880s that royal ceremonial became more public and imposing – and did so in a calculated manner. J. L. Lant and David Cannadine have described the improvements in the quality of royal ceremonial in the final years of the reign. There was a fundamental continuity in attitudes to royal ceremonial during the years 1837–1901, and too strong a division should not be drawn between a ‘utilitarian’ early period and an ‘irrational’ later one.
