3-028-127 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Arrival of the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton, 1871. 'The coming of age...of George Robert Charles, thirteenth Earl of Pembroke, and tenth Earl of Montgomery, son of the late Lord Herbert of Lea, was celebrated with great festivity at Wilton, near Salisbury. The young Earl, with his mother, Lady Herbert, returned from their Continental travels, and...were met at the railway station by the Mayor of that little town...[They rode] in an open carriage, with 150 tenant farmers on horseback...Many visitors, from Salisbury and the neighbouring towns, were among the spectators. A royal standard was hoisted over the gates of the station yard; fir trees were planted there, and the railway arch was festooned with evergreens...in the avenue leading to Wilton House, 150 yards from the park gates, was a still finer arch, surmounted by the arms of the Herbert family, with an Earl's coronet, from which depended the combined letters P. and M., for Pembroke and Montgomery...the Earl and Lady Herbert entertained a very large party of their friends and of the tenants with a banquet, under a marquee in the courtyard'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.