The Evacuation of England: The Twist in the Gulf Stream

by L. P. Gratacap

The King was to ascend the theatre of the Abbey, and be lifted into His Throne by the Archbishops and Bishops, and other Peers of the kingdom, and being enthronized, or placed therein, all the great officers, those that bear the swords and sceptres, and the rest of the nobles, should stand round about the steps of the throne, and the Archbishop standing before the King should say the exhortation, beginning with the words, “Stand firm, and hold fast from henceforth the Seat of State of Royal and Imperial Dignity, which is this day delivered unto you in the Name and by the Authority of Almighty God, and by the hands of Us, the Bishops and Servants of God, though unworthy, etc, etc.”

And then the homage being offered and accepted, the King attended and accompanied, the four swords—being the sword of Mercy, the sword of Justice to the Spirituality, the sword of Justice to the Temporality, and the sword of State—were to be carried before him. He should then descend from his throne crowned, and, carrying his Sceptre and Rod in his hands, should go into the area eastward of the theatre, and pass on through the door on the south side of the altar into King Edward’s Chapel, the organ and other instruments all the while playing.

The King should then, standing before the altar, deliver the Sceptre with the Dove to the Archbishop, who would lay it upon the altar there. The King would then be disrobed of his imperial mantle, and be arrayed in his royal robe of purple velvet, by the Lord Great Chamberlain.

The Archbishop should then place the orb in his majesty’s left hand. Then his majesty should proceed through the choir to the west door of the Abbey, in the same manner as he came, wearing his crown and bearing in his right hand the Sceptre, with the Cross, and in his left the orb; all Peers wearing their coronets, and the Archbishops and Bishops their caps.

The interior arrangements in the Abbey were familiar. From the west door where the procession should enter to the screen which divides choir from nave, two rows of galleries were to be erected on each side of the centre aisle—the one gallery level with the vaultings, the other with the summit of the western door. These galleries should have their fronts fluted with crimson cloth richly draped at the top, and decorated with broad golden fringe at the bottom.

On the floor of the centre aisle a slightly raised platform or carpeted way, should be laid down, along which the King and Queen, in procession should pass to the choir. This was to be matted over and covered with crimson cloth. On the pavement of the aisle bordering this carpeted way should stand the soldiery as a fence against interference.

The theatre where the principal parts of the ceremony were to be enacted lies immediately under the central tower of the Abbey, and was a square formed by the intersection of the choir and the transcepts, extending nearly the whole breadth of the choir. On this square a platform was to be erected ascended by five steps. The summit of this platform and also the highest step leading to it, was to be covered with the richest cloth of gold. From that step down to the flooring of the theatre, all was covered with carpet of rich red or purple color bordered with gold. In the centre of the theatre the sumptuously draped chair was to be placed for the sovereign, in which he receives the homage of the Peers.

This interior pomp and splendor escaped the observation of Leacraft, though he was not unfamiliar with the details of the solemn pageant, but now it hardly interested him. His mind by a natural emancipation from the thrall of such spectacles, dwelt rather on the attitude of the people in this extreme peril and solicitude. He felt inquisitive to learn their feelings, their hopes, their cohesiveness in the changed estate. Were they likely to resolve into a chaos of preferences with only the cry of sauve qui peut in their mouths, or would they follow the new destinies, and preserve the nation. At length the populace were coming into their own. It was pretty evident that a King and Queen and Regalia, and Peers, and Peeresses, and a much surpliced Clergy, would not make a nation, without the workers, the rent payers, the men of action, the bread winners, the clerks, artisans, and merchants, the householder and his family, and that the sacred classes would be suddenly subjected to a reductio ad absurdum, if they formed the only inhabitants of the new regime and their titles lost their raison d’etre with the disappearance of the untitled mass.

After the rendering of the Homage at the Abbey, the Procession was to take place, and the King arriving at Tilbury, with the royal family, a selection of the Peers, the highest Episcopal prelates, and certain representative men from the Commons, including the Ministry, would be received on the Dreadnought, and with a glorious escort of the largest battleships, carrying the royal equipage, the furniture of Windsor Castle, and of St. James palace, and of the Buckingham mansion, the archives of the Parliament, at least a portion, steam away from England to Australia, to Melbourne. This Nucleus of Government holding the inseparable insignia, and the actual essence of the English nation would there, with pomp and solemn allegations, with rolling music and pious prayers, with thunders of the guns by the Navy, and the salute of the Army, be as it were reinstalled.

But the route of the procession was not to be straight out of London. It comprised a broader purpose. It was proposed to circumvallate London, to impregnate it with the sentiment of the King’s leaving. It should be traversed and penetrated in all directions, gathering thus the public allegiance, and absorbing its loyalty, shedding the effulgence of the royal splendor upon the populace, and enchaining them anew to the principle and fact of English Sovreignty. It was a stupendous project. It involved stations and relays. Camps of the military were to be established at St. James Park, at Victoria Park, at Regent’s Park, at the West End near Paddington, at Wormwood Scrubs, and in the southern districts around Clapham Common and towards Putney.