The Major Rituals - Presentation at Court

This book What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool is sitting right next to me on my desk so I can easily reference it as I write. It has been an invaluable tool in the writing of my current tale, Grimoire, and I expect this will not be the last time I make use of the interesting facts within its pages.  As an example, last night I made use of the above referenced chapter, p.70.

 "It [presentation] marked the formal entrance of a young girl into fashionable society, her 'coming out' - after which she was free, indeed, required, to marry."

At that time presentations took place at St. James, where the young lady in question would wait to be summoned. She was required to wear a train that was "precisely three yards long and...neck and shoulders were to to be bare no matter how cold the weather..." She would then enter the Presence Chamber and make her way to the throne where she would be announced to the Queen. The lady would curtsy and kiss the Queen's hand, unless she was a peer or a peer's daughter, in which case the Queen kissed her forehead. The lady then rose and curtsied again, backing out of the room, and never turning her face away from the Queen.

In my tale, however, Arlen is presented to the Queen of the English witches, rather than the Queen of England.