THE ROYAL CARRIAGE PASSING ALONG PALL MALL
It is the British Army in miniature, at the head of which, by desire of the Prince of Wales, rides the tallest man in the service, Captain O. Ames of the Life Guards, proud of his six feet eight inches, and having as an escort four troopers of exceptional stature. Blue-jackets dragging their naval guns are followed by detachments of Cavalry regiments; and then in imposing array, in what seems to be a never-ending line, mounted men pass in review—Hussars, Dragoons, Lancers, and Horse Artillery—with bands playing and pennants flying, and high above the martial music rises the proud cheers of a people justly glorying in this spectacle of military strength.
MILITARY TYPES
SERGEANT GORDON, V.C., FIRST WEST INDIAN REGIMENT
With the appearance of the foreign suite, aides-de-camp, equerries, and gentlemen in attendance on the Royal personages, the procession gains in stateliness and colour, every nation contributing its distinctive and gorgeous uniforms, making up a moving picture of unequalled splendour as these high dignitaries, some hundreds in number, precede the first of the Royal carriages. In these latter are seated the special Envoys of Greece and Central America, Mexico and Brazil, Chang Yin Hun, the Chinese Ambassador, in handsome Eastern robes; Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the United States special Ambassador, affording a contrast amid all this magnificence by the plainness of his black coat and prosaic silk hat. Next follow the great Officers of State and yet more carriages containing Royal Princesses, the Queen’s children and her children’s children, Princesses from every Court in Europe, and the widowed daughters of Her Majesty—the Empress Frederick, whose beloved consort formed so noble a figure in the other procession ten years earlier, and Princess Henry of Battenberg, discarding for this joyous day her sombre attire and dressed in white. Sixteen carriages, all drawn by four horses, richly caparisoned and with postillions, serve to carry this noble company. Next come the Royal Princes and representatives, mounted and riding three abreast, the Duke of Fife and the Marquis of Lorne being among the first of this exalted group, which numbers forty in all, and includes in its later ranks the Prince of Naples, Prince Albert of Prussia, the Grand Duke Serge of Russia, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, and the Grand Duke of Hesse, all present to do honour to England’s Queen.
An escort of Indian Cavalry, richly dressed and splendidly horsed, follows, and then there is a slight break in the procession, for the seventeenth and last carriage is that containing the beloved Sovereign on whom all thoughts and hearts are centred.
Elaborate arrangements had been made so that Her Majesty, just before leaving Buckingham Palace, might send a simultaneous message to her subjects throughout the world, and these are the words, simple but sincere, which were transmitted over the private wire from the Palace to the Central Telegraph Department in St. Martins-le-Grand, thence to be flashed to the farthest corner of the British Empire:—“From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them. V.R. & I.”
Let history record the fact, happy and significant as it is. During all that parade of military pomp and Royal splendour the sun had been hidden behind a haze of clouds, but at 11.15, just as a gun mounted in the Park booms the signal that the Queen is passing from under the portals of Buckingham Palace, there is a sudden burst of brilliant sunshine, which illumines that scene of inspiring grandeur and spreads itself over the carriage in which is seated Her Majesty, the Princess of Wales, and Princess Christian. Cheers burst forth from countless loyal throats, mingling with the strains of the National Anthem, as the Queen’s carriage is drawn along by eight cream-coloured horses, covered with trappings of crimson and gold, ridden by richly-apparelled postilions, and attended by grooms in gold-embroidered livery.
