QUEEN MARY CROWNED

Evening Star, Issue 14636, 4 August 1911, Page 6

QUEEN MARY CROWNED

CLOSING SCENES IN THE ABBEY. [FaoM Orm Special Correspondent.] LONDON, June 25. Her Majesty's Coronation was short and comparatively" simple, but provided a wonderful sight/ She was anointed under the golden canopy by the altar. The Duchesses of Sutherland. Hamilton, Montrose, and Portland held the canopy high above the head of their Royal mistress, on whose head the crown was placed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. As this was done all the peeresses put on their coronets, a proceeding that might have provoked ribald laughter on a different occasion, for many of the high-bom ladios made a fearful hash of the business. Some could not get the coronets to set upon their heads at all. and others only succeeded in getting them to stop on at an angle that can only be described as rakish. The Queen then passed back to the Throne curtsying low to the King as she passed before him. After the' enthronement came the celebration of the Holy Communion, and when that was over the King and Queen passed behind the altar into St. Edward's Chapel. Here the King exchanged the crown of St. Edward for another, which he wore on his way back to Buckingham Palace. The crown of St. Edward is far too heavy too bear for long. There was a short interval, during which the King changed his cloth-of-gold robes for those of crimson and ermine, and during this period the minor royalties returned to tli£ annexe to prepare for the return journey to the Palace. And then the King and Queen reappeared, with the strains of the National Anthem voiced by organ, band, choristers, and the assembled multitude in the ears passed down the long aisle—crowned. Then w* in the Abbey enjoyed a unique privilege. As the strains of''God Save the King* died away the head master of Westminster School, Dr Gow, called upon his scholar* for three cheers for the King. With a will the boys started, and everybody joined in. "Three for the Queen" was an order obeyed to the full by the boys. Then there was a pause, and, taking advantage of it, Dr Gow smashed precedent into little bits by calling for three more cheers for the Prince of Wales. These were given with even more vigor than those for his father and mother, for the congregation had bv this time quite overcome the diffidence that had restrained their voices when cheering for the King and Queen. Cheers in a place of worship—especially such a venerable pile as the Abbey—seemed at first anomalous, to say the least of it. but in the end the lead given by the.. strong-tnroated Westminster boys proved irresistible to nearly everybody.