The royal princes plodded slowly and sadly behind the coffin of their father, George V, as it was hauled through the streets of London to lie in state in Westminster Hall. In the silent crowd, Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell looked on the gun carriage draped with the royal standard and surmounted by the Imperial Crown and thought it 'unexpectedly lovely'. But then she caught sight of the new King, Edward VIII. What struck her was not just that he looked utterly miserable and very small, but that he was 'disreputable, patchy and debauched'. She was not impressed.