2-798-711 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Her Majesty's Entrée in to Coburg, 1845. Royal visit to Germany: crowds line the streets as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert pass under a triumphal arch with a sign saying 'Wilkommen'. 'The reception was not so much a state ceremonial, as a warm and affectionate family meeting; the same feeling seems to pervade the inhabitants of the place; they have decorated the town in every part; but it is with all the emblems of cheerfulness and festivity, rather than those of dignity and state. Every house, every street, is festooned with garlands and wreaths, disposed with exceeding taste; at some distance from the gate by which the Queen entered, a triumphal Gothic arch was thrown across the road, formed of evergreens, surmounted by flags, and bearing the word which is pleasing in all languages: " Welcome"'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.