THE DELHI DURBAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 121, 14 July 1911, Page 5

THE DELHI DURBAR.

The Durbar a Delhi at iho n.l cf this year, tlia crowning uoult ot his Majesty's visit ro India, • ill probably oe tne most impressive sj.trtaclc mat iiie history of India has ever witnessed, but a writer in “the Times” tninks it will Jack some of the pictuiestpieness of the Coronation Curbar or 1903. That gathering marked the end of a great and picturesque era, and in tne few intervening years, there have been many changes in India. In 1903 the motor-car was still an object of some curiosity, and there were few of them in Delhi. ••The elephant was the symbii ot the last Duroar; the taxi-cab seems likely to be the key-note of the next. In PJO3 the princes brought with them swarms of retainers in mediaeval garb, but to-day mediaeval India lingers only in the more secluled States. Maharajahs no longer delight to ride in golden howdans on stately elephants. The State entry into Delhi was the incomparable feature of tlio lb I .l j Durbar. It can never be produced again with the same barbaric splendour. Preceded by troops, the \ iccroy rode on an elephant ucanng a howdali coverel with silver inlaid with gold. The huge saddle-cloth was stilt with heavy gold embroidery. There followed the Duka of Connaught on an elephant caparisoned with i-c;ual -pnmiour, and a long hno of glitmg elephant bearing priu a. Every howdali was decorated with river and gold; every saddle-cloth gleamed in the sun; every prince were a magnificent collection of jewels. This time the King-Emperor will enter on horse-back, and the only pi in es who will attend him will be his personal aides-de-camp. However, no one who did not see the ceremony of 1903 will think about this change. There will be enough impressiveness and splendour to satisfy the most blase person. Those who have the gcol fortune to bo present will see tl e first crowning of a British Emperor of India, near the most historic city in the country, on a plain that is “covered with the dust of dead empires.”