"In January 1842 my Father asked and obtained leave to present to the Queen [Queen Victoria] a bottle of water he had himself brought from the River Jordan, for the christening of the Prince of Wales [the future Edward VII]. His father's friend Lord Delaware being then Lord Chamberlain, easily managed it for him, & he was allowed to be present at the Baptism in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, an honor he had hardly hoped for. After the ceremony, Lord Delaware asked him if he would like to have the box and bottle back again? as these things were his perquisites. Of course he said Yes - and two or three of us were baptized from the same bottle."
From *Memoirs of Emily Elliott p26:
"I had a curious adventure with the Prince of Wales, who was then a youth, and spending the winter with his tutor in Rome. It came round to him through his chaplain whom our Father knew, that I had been baptized in Jordan water from the same bottle as himself - (brought by my Father from Palestine, as before mentioned) - and he dubbed me his "baptismal sister"! So one day during the Carnival - at which time all things are permissible - we exchanged bouquets and bows and smiles by means of a string let down from the balcony we were in, to H.R.H! I dried the flowers - and still have some camelias left as a relic of that little episode."
Handwritten on the bottle:
"This Bottle, procured in Jerusalem, was filled at the River Jordan by the Revd .. C:B: Elliott
Presented by special permission to Her most gracious Majesty on the occasion of the Baptism of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales."
A line is drawn below this and the following also hand-written on a separate label:
"This Bottle and the accompanying Box, in which the water of Jordan was presented to Her Majesty, were after the Baptism, by Her Majesty’s permission, restored to the donor, as a memorial of the event, by the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Delawarr, at Windsor Palace, Jan. 28. 1842y."
A number of fragments of folded newspaper are also kept within the mahogany case. One reads as follows:
"The Times; Monday January 31 1842. Page 5.
MOVEMENTS AT WINDSOR
After the repast the King of Prussia led the way into the saloon above; where, after looking at some paintings by German artists, he examined minutely an interesting collection of curiosities brought from the Holy Land by the Rev. Charles Elliott; expressing himself especially interested in some water and bitumen from the Dead Sea, a portion of rock of Mount Tabor and Mount of Olives and some branches of the olive trees now growing in the Garden of Gethsemane."
Another reads:
"The Hallelujah Chorus was then chanted by the full choir, and in a style which filled every listener with admiration and delight.
The Royal procession then departed in the same order in which they had entered the choir. We must not omit to mention that the Amens in the services were given so softly and sweetly by the full choir as to produce the very finest effect.
The water with which his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was baptised, was filled from the river Jordan, and presented to Her Majesty by the Rev. Chas. Boileau Elliott, of Tattingstone, Suffolk; and the greatest interest was excited after the ceremony by the spectators, who thronged around the font, anxious to dip the tips of their fingers in it.
RETURN OF THE PROCESSION.
The grand crash of instruments by which the Hallelujah Chorus is distinguished, as well as the booming of the guns in the Long Walk, gave notice to the spectators in the Lower Ward of the Castle, that the Christening was concluded. The Royal carriages, which had filed off..."