Who scarce had plucked his flickering life again
From halfway down the shadow of the grave,
Past through the people and their love;
And London roll’d one tide of joy thro’ all
Her trebled millions and loud leagues of men.
Two days later Queen Victoria wrote from Buckingham Palace to Mr. Gladstone, who was then Prime Minister, one of those touching letters which on many occasions drew still more closely together the ties of loyalty and affection between Her Majesty and her people. The Queen wrote that she was anxious “to express publicly her own personal very deep sense of the reception she and her dear children met with on Tuesday, the 27th of February, from millions of her subjects on her way to and from St. Paul’s. Words are too weak for the Queen to say how very deeply touched and gratified she has been by the immense enthusiasm and affection exhibited towards her dear son and herself, from the highest down to the lowest, in the long progress through the capital, and she would earnestly wish to convey her warmest and most heartfelt thanks to the whole nation for this great demonstration of loyalty. The Queen, as well as her son and dear daughter-in-law, felt that the whole nation joined with them in thanking God for sparing the beloved Prince of Wales’s life.…”
Thanksgiving Day, 1872: The Procession up Ludgate Hill
From the “Illustrated London News”
Although the Duchess of Teck had not been able to attend the Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul’s, she returned to England in time to take part in a great ceremony which took place on the 1st of May at the Crystal Palace. Referring to this occasion, she writes:—“We drove down to Sydenham with Louise as Alfred’s guests to attend the fête in celebration of Wales’s recovery. Concert: Sullivan’s Te Deum, Miscellanies with Titiens.”