Sixty Years a Queen Part 42

[Sidenote: Night in the Streets.]

At nightfall, an inhabitant of London who had known it in more prosaic times might well have been pardoned for thinking the whole Nation were mad and had turned the Metropolis into Bedlam. Vast armies of excited people invaded the streets and, in spite of the fatigues that must have been endured, comported themselves most admirably. There was little prospect of their getting home. But no one cared. Why should they? They had come to see the Jubilee, some of them from the uttermost ends of the earth, and see the Jubilee they would, though they spent the night in the streets--and thousands of them did so spend the night. Some possibly had been unable to secure sleeping accommodation, others evidently thought it scarcely worth while to return to distant suburbs when it would be necessary for them to be up and doing early the next morning.

As the short night broke into day cl.u.s.ters of people were seen grouped round the base of the Arch, on Const.i.tution Hill, at Hyde Park Corner, and in Trafalgar Square. Hundreds took their stand on the kerb all along the route, and waited patiently. If they had but known it these loyal souls might have saved themselves so much trouble--for if there was one thing about Jubilee Day more remarkable than another, it was the complete absence of undue crowding in the streets. Those who strolled down to Piccadilly, St. James's Street, Fleet Street, or the Strand two or three hours before the Procession started, were as well able to witness the most impressive pageant that London has ever seen as those whose eagerness led them to take up their positions four or five hours earlier. The route was long, and the spectators, except at points of convergence like Hyde Park Corner and Ludgate Circus, well distributed throughout its entire length, while many hundreds of thousands were accommodated in the houses; but this only partially explains the complete immunity from uncomfortable crus.h.i.+ng enjoyed by those who lined the streets. The fact is, that a very large number of Londoners fearing the crowd, and apprehensive perhaps of extreme fatigue and even of actual danger, migrated from the Metropolis and spent the day in the country or at the seaside. It is beyond doubt, moreover, that London crowds grow more orderly and manageable year by year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MORNING ON THE LINE OF ROUTE.

These two ill.u.s.trations are copies of actual photographs taken for this volume in the early morning of the great day. The upper one represents the steps beneath the Duke of York's Column in Waterloo Place, and was taken at half-past five. The other is the fountain near St.

Mary-le-Strand Church at six o'clock. A policeman with his horse is already stationed in the roadway beyond the fountain, and many spectators have taken their places for the day.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by York & Son, Notting Hill._

THE COLONIAL PROCESSION: ARRIVAL OF THE CANADIAN PREMIER (THE HON.

WILFRID LAURIER) AT HYDE PARK CORNER.

The Canadian Premier's carriage was preceded by Canadian troops, and followed by the New South Wales Rifles and Lancers. The Procession is just emerging from Const.i.tution Hill by the great gates of the Arch which are opened only for Royalty. The crowd at this point was, perhaps, the biggest on the route, and stretched away down Grosvenor Place, down Knightsbridge, into Hyde Park (there were thousands of people in the Park who had given up all hope of seeing the Procession), and choked all the streets leading into Piccadilly.]

CHAPTER II.

The Weather--A brilliant day for a brilliant pageant--The Queen's Message to her people--The Colonial Procession--The Royal Procession--Loyal enthusiasm--The Queen's reception at the City boundary--The Service at the steps of St. Paul's--The halt at the Mansion House--In the Borough--Return to the Palace--Presents to the Queen--Congratulations from abroad--The Royal Dinner.

The weather in the week before Jubilee week had been broken and stormy.

The most sanguine feared that "Queen's Weather" was not to be looked for on the most momentous day in the great little lady's life. As a matter of fact, the sky on the morning of June 22 was dull and overcast; and it was not until the scarlet coats of the soldiers lined each side of the roadway along the seven-mile route with warm colour that the expectant, buzzing mult.i.tude gave itself up to an unqualified enjoyment of the day.

But the very elements conspired to add splendour to the great festival of the Queen. It is a curious circ.u.mstance that at "the very moment when the head of the Queen's Procession came through the archway into the courtyard of Buckingham Palace the sun, which until then had been waiting its opportunity behind the clouds, tried an experimental s.h.i.+ne.

At a quarter-past eleven precisely, at the very moment when the first gun of the Royal Salute boomed out in Hyde Park to announce that Her Majesty herself was leaving the Palace, the experiment developed into an achievement. The light haze that had hung in the air seemed instantaneously to melt away, and the suns.h.i.+ne burst out bright and clear over the jubilant city. It seemed as though the suns.h.i.+ne was one of the prearranged items of the programme, and had been carried out with the absolute punctuality which marked the carrying out of all the arrangements."

[Ill.u.s.tration: In the above Map the Route of the Procession is indicated by the thick outline; it lay up Const.i.tution Hill, along Piccadilly, St.

James's Street, Pall Mall, the Strand, and Fleet Street to St. Paul's; thence by Cheapside, King William Street, London Bridge, the Borough, Westminster Bridge, Parliament Street, Horse Guards' Parade, and the Mall, back to Buckingham Palace.]

[Sidenote: The Queen's Message to her people.]

Before leaving Buckingham Palace, the Queen gave the signal for the transmission to all parts of the Empire of that gracious message which is now engraven on the hearts of her people. A private telegraph wire had been erected between the Palace and the Central Telegraph Office.

Her Majesty touched a b.u.t.ton attached to a small telegraphic instrument in connection with this wire, thereby giving the signal to the officials at the Telegraph Office; and before the Royal carriage had pa.s.sed through the Palace gates, the royal message was being flashed along ten thousand thousand miles of wire to the farthest outposts of British civilization. Characteristic alike of the monarch and of her people were the simple words:--

"FROM MY HEART I THANK MY BELOVED PEOPLE.

"MAY G.o.d BLESS THEM.

"V. R. and I."

Several replies from distant Colonies were found awaiting Her Majesty when she returned to her Palace. Thus the witchcraft of science added another touch of splendour to these unique festivities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. Frith & Co., Reigate._

THE PIPERS OF THE LONDON SCOTTISH VOLUNTEERS ESCORTING COLONIAL TROOPS.

The stand on the right, in front of the National Gallery, is occupied by Peers and their Ladies and friends. The whole of the north side of Trafalgar Square (from the steps on the left of the picture to the corresponding steps at the other end of the terrace) was occupied by the London County Council Stand, one of the largest on the route. At this spot the roadway was lined by Bluejackets and Marines.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_By A. H. Brunell._

THE COLONIAL PROCESSION: ZAPTIEHS FROM CYPRUS Pa.s.sING LUDGATE CIRCUS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by the London Stereoscopic Co._

THE HONG KONG POLICE AND OTHER TROOPS FROM THE CROWN COLONIES Pa.s.sING DOWN KING WILLIAM STREET.]

[Sidenote: The Colonial Procession.]

Soon after nine o'clock the first part of the Procession left Buckingham Palace. It consisted of the Colonial contingent, headed by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, V.C., supporting a Field-Marshal's baton on his right thigh, and mounted on a grey pony. All along the route the gallant soldier was greeted with mighty cheers, and it was universally thought that the choice of so popular a General to command the Colonial troops while they were in this country was a singularly felicitous one.

Immediately behind the Field-Marshal rode the Canadian Hussars, 2nd Canadian Dragoons, and the Mounted Police--a magnificent group of men, who excited universal admiration--preceding the carriage of the Premier of Canada, the Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier. This gentleman was received with thunders of applause by the spectators, as were the other Colonial Premiers; and if anything were needed to convince our ill.u.s.trious visitors that the heart of the old country is warm for her children, their welcome on this day of days amply fulfilled the need.

Then came the New South Wales Mounted Rifles, the New South Wales Lancers, and the Victorian Mounted Rifles--superb hors.e.m.e.n these, and singularly effective-looking in their slouch hats fastened up at the side and khaki uniforms--and after them the carriage in which rode the Premiers of New South Wales and Victoria. But it is impossible to give an account of each group. The actual spectators of the beautiful Colonial procession could but feast their eyes on each body of splendid warriors as it pa.s.sed, and cherish a vain wish that the pageant might be repeated again and again until every individual horseman and foot-soldier had received a due meed of admiration. Only too quickly came into view and pa.s.sed away New Zealand mounted troops--among them a few giant Maoris--Queensland Mounted Rifles, riflemen from the Cape and South Australian Lancers, Natal Carabiniers and Umvoti, Natal and Border Mounted Rifles, and then troops from the Crown Colonies; Trinidad Mounted Rifles, and Zaptiehs from Cyprus; "upstanding Sikhs, tiny little Malays and Dyaks; Chinese with a white basin turned upside down on their heads; grinning Hausas, so dead black that they shone like silver in the sun--white men, yellow men, brown men, black men, every colour, every continent, every race, every speech--and all in arms for the British Empire and the British Queen." After the Cypriotes came a handful of the Rhodesian Horse, headed by the Hon. Maurice Gifford, carrying one pathetic empty sleeve across his breast--a group that evoked almost frantic cheering. "Up they came, more and more," says Mr. G. W.

Steevens, in the _Daily Mail_ of June 23, "new types, new realms at every couple of yards, an anthropological museum--a living gazetteer of the British Empire. With them came their English officers, whom they obey and follow like children. And you began to understand, as never before, what the Empire amounts to. Not only that we possess all these remote outlandish places, and can bring men from every end of the earth to join us in honouring our Queen, but also that all these people are working, not simply under us, but with us that we send out a boy here and a boy there, and the boy takes hold of the savages of the part he comes to, and teaches them to march and shoot as he tells them, to obey him and believe in him, and die for him and the Queen. A plain, stupid, uninspired people, they call us, and yet we are doing this with every kind of savage man there is. And each one of us--you and I, and that man in his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves at the corner--is a working part of this world-shaping force. How small you must feel in face of the stupendous whole, and yet how great to be a unit in it!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_By Valentine & sons, Dundee._

THE COLONIAL PROCESSION: THE CARRIAGES OF THE PREMIERS CROSSING LONDON BRIDGE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. Downer, Watford._

THE COLONIAL PROCESSION: THE RHODESIAN HORSE IN THE MALL, HEADED BY THE HON. MAURICE GIFFORD.]

[Sidenote: The Royal Procession.]

Ten minutes after the last of the Colonial contingent had pa.s.sed, the advance guard of the Royal Procession proper came into sight. The first man in that gorgeous company rode the giant Guardsman, Captain Oswald Ames, seeming not so very much taller than the splendid fellows who followed him, in spite of his six feet eight inches. Close following these came a Naval Gun Detachment who pa.s.sed away through the avenues of enthusiastic civilians amidst a tumult of acclaim. Then, in quick succession, Life Guards, Dragoon Guards, Hussars, Lancers, and Batteries of the Royal Horse Artillery--the finest Artillery in the World. More quickly almost than these words are read the various component parts of the resplendent cavalcade came into view and vanished again. The populace waved its handkerchiefs and roared itself hoa.r.s.e in a chorus of approval that was too whole-hearted to discriminate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. Frith & Co., Reigate._

THE ROYAL PROCESSION: OFFICERS OF THE HEAD-QUARTERS STAFF LEAVING BUCKINGHAM PALACE.

On the balcony are the three children of the Duke of York; little Prince Edward in the centre. After the return of the Procession, when the people were allowed within the s.p.a.ce outside the Palace railings, His Royal Highness frequently acknowledged their cheers by saluting in military style.]

As a grand ceremonial figure the Crown Prince, afterwards the Emperor Frederick of Germany, had attracted more personal notice in the procession of 1887 than was accorded to any visitor in that of 1897, but the _personnel_ of the latter function was, in general, far more distinguished. As regards the procession of carriages, which followed immediately after the glittering deputation of officers of the Imperial Service Troops in India, those containing the Royal children--Her Majesty's grandchildren and great-grandchildren--were most enthusiastically received by the crowd. The gravity with which the tiny Princes and Princesses acknowledged the greetings of the spectators occasioned great delight among the people, and the military salutes of the young Duke of Albany and Prince Arthur of Connaught, were the signals for fresh outbursts of applause. The Empress Frederick, the d.u.c.h.esses of York, of Teck, of Connaught, and of Albany, the Princesses Louise and Henry of Battenberg, were each and all cheered and cheered again. The Princes and other ill.u.s.trious persons representing the States of almost every Kingdom and Republic in the World, who rode in threes close before the Queen's carriage, made up a group of almost unparalleled interest and importance. In recognition of his exalted rank as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lord Wolseley, in the uniform and carrying the baton of a Field-Marshal, rode immediately in front of the Queen's carriage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Gregory & Co._

CAPTAIN AMES, 2ND LIFE GUARDS.

The tallest officer in the British army, who headed the Royal Procession.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Symmons & Co., Chancery Lane._

THE ROYAL PROCESSION: AIDES-DE-CAMP Pa.s.sING THE UNITED SERVICE CLUB.