"LONG EXPECTED COME AT LAST!"
The Imperial Institute has commenced. The first stone has been laid by Her Gracious Majesty, and the Prince of Wales is sanguine as to the result. The Institute is to be a House and Home, with gardens attached, for special use of our Indian and Colonial cousins visiting England, and it is also intended to keep perpetually before the eyes of the British Public specimens of Indian and Colonial industry. To so useful a scheme Mr. Punch wishes every success.
Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum,
Tendimus in—Kensington.
The subjoined list of the Procession as it ought to have been, was probably altered at the last moment; but there is no doubt it would have been effective as it stood, or rather as it moved on:—
| Australian Lambs. The Master of the Mint. | Organising Committee with variousOrgans. | Mr. Boehm, R.A., and Mr. Goschen with new coinage tossing heads. |
Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A., drawing himself.
| Groom of the Bedchamber (on towel-horse). | "Lord's" in Waiting (Oxford and Cambridge Eleven). |
The Rajah of Shampooah, with Order of the Turkish Bath.
THE QUEEN.
| Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales. | H.R.H. Prince of Wales, K.G. ("K.G.," i.e., "Kensington Gained.") |
Any Kings and Queens who may be left in Town.
| Master of the Horse on a Buck-jumper. | Ladies in Waiting to be asked. | Mistress of the Robes ("dressing up.") |
| Lots of Sticks in Waiting (with banners of Advertisements in Era.) | A Serene Grand Transparency (personally illuminated by Mr. Brock.) | "Mr. G," as "Umbrella in Waiting." (N.B.—This is "Collar day.") |
Any number of Trumpeters blowing their own Trumpets.
| Little Indian Pickles, led, with taste, by Sir P. Cunliffe Owen | Geo. Augustus Sala, with "Echoes," and driving four Quills at once. | Australian Wines,headed by Sir "Will Somers" Vine |
Mr. Lewis Morris, with his Ode Colonial, accompanied by
Sir Arthur Sullivan, on a Grand Piano.
| Mr. Henry Irving. (Last appearance in London previous to his departure for America.) | Mr. J. L. Toole. (Last appearance in London previous to his departure for Aix-les-Bains.) |
Right Hon. W. H. Smith, with banner of "Closure."
At a signal from the Archbishop the Chorus will strike up—
The great Imperial Institoot,
In Kensington has taken root,
And as a tree up may it shoot!
Our Institoot, Our Institoot!
Sir Arthur Sullivan was so overcome by this inspiration, that after reading it, he could not compose himself. "No," he exclaimed, "I cannot invent music which should be a worthy setting for so precious a gem! Give me something more simple," and so it came about that Mr. Lewis Morris's poem was chosen. Whether the above-quoted beautiful chorale was written by the Earl of R-ssl-n, whose little Jubilee volume of poems has so enchanted a select circle, or by another titled and unprofessional poet, is a secret which wild horses should not make us divulge. Hooray for the Institoot!
