TO HER LONG REST

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3247, 18 January 1926, Page 7

TO HER LONG REST

THE ROSE QUEEN’S FUNERAL.

[From Our Own Correspondent.] LONDON, December 10.

Great public ceremonies are not always all they are painted to be. But Queen Alexandra’s funeral pageant in London, and the wonderful Abbey service, will remain vivid memories for a generation. Suddenly as a miracle a heavy fall of snow whitened and muffled all London. The Kings and Princes, statesmen and ecclesiasts, walked silently over a thick carpet of fresh snow as they followed the royal coffin on its gun-carriage. Ther e was snow on th e stalwart shoulders of the eight tall Grenadiers who bore the dead Queen within the Abbey, and snow' also flecked the bearskins of the marching Grenadier company. It was [impossible for th e mind to escape the august homage implied by the white silence thus imposed by Nature herself upon this historic passing of a gracious Queen. Inside and Without the Abbey. Inside the thronged Abbey was a subdued blaze of brilliant uniforms, sad sweet music of celestial harmony, the radiantly clear pure voices of the choristers, and, with a background of sable black, faces and figures famous In contemporary history. It was a great dramatic picture that no pu, liter could do justice do. Outside a vast multitude of London’s citizens, men and women, old and young, rich and poor, all clothed In sombre hues, the men bareheaded, the women pale and [often weeping, watched the slow passing of the tragic procession. A bitter cold wind blew, but the crowd, assembled quietly bouts before the time. [One elderly lady kept vigil at the Ab|boy doors all through the November night from before midnight. These people were no mere sightseers. They were genuine mourners, as their every demeanour showed, conscious of sharing a national impulse.