The Daily Feather – Distressing Oscillations

Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz thanked her lucky stars the royal coach her fiancé commissioned was not ready for her 1861 wedding day or his subsequent coronation that year. Completed the following year, the Gold State Coach is the oldest to still grace London’s streets, much to its passengers’ dismay. The tradition that the eight-horse-pulled Gold State be used at every coronation, as it’s been since 1831, was upheld Saturday. One must wonder if King Charles III had a custom tuffet secreted in to cushion the ride back to Buckingham Palace from Westminster Abbey. William IV, the first monarch to take that same route after he’d been crowned, likened his journey in the four-ton, 29-feet long behemoth to “being aboard a ship tossing in a rough sea.” Queen Victoria lamented its “distressing oscillations.” Dispensing with decorum, Queen Elizabeth II said the Gold State was “horrible.” Such was the unusual chill that accompanied her June 1953 coronation, a hot water bottle was placed under the velvet-cushioned seat to warm her royal derriere.

For nearly three years, wealthy Americans have felt little discomfort.