THE KING'S WEEK.
ROYAL PROGRESS THROUGH LONDON. A RHILLLANT 'PAGENT. On June 23rd, the clay otter the Coronation, the King and Queen drove in procession through London. Thfollowing arc extracts from the “Daily Rail s” report of the pageant:— The ceremony of Thursday was a ceremony of religious consecration. The King went to the Ah hey, accompanied by the great o dicers of ids Household, and was hound to the service of his people by tits eloquence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The procession of yesterday was a military procession. it was the pageant of our Imperial Army. Nothing was lacking to its beauty and splendour. The Army, which in war puts on its sober suits, is in peace the service of honour and display, and alien it accompanied the King upon Iris progress it showed itself in all flic brilliance of scarlet and gold, of sparkling helmets and nodding pinnies. There is a pause and a sound of martial music, coming, wo know not whence, as though the spirits of the air were chanting to the praises of England and her Empire. Then after four troopers' of the Royal Horse Guards there came a detachment of the Royal Navy, and it was fitting, although the procession was a procession of the Army, that the Senior Service should lead the wav. The
Royal Navy passed, followed by the. Royal Naval Reserves, and instantly the hand of the Royal Artillery set us a tune for the .military pageant which followed. All the great re-
giments passed before our eyes, tlio rep,imouts that won undying glory in Spain and If ranee, in India, and South Africa, as if to remind ns how many battles we had fought and in how fardistant fields. There thundered a battery of the Royal Horae Artillery. There rode, in its multi-coloured gaiety, a squadron of the Household Cavalry. At id as each passed it was greeted with the whole-hearted cheers of enthusiastic spectators. Hussars followed Dragoons. The pennons of the Lancers waved and sparkled in the morning air. A Howitzer .Battery which followed reminded us.suddenly of the gravity of war. Then came the King's Indian Orderly Officers, perfect horsemen, perfectly mounted, resplendent n th uniforms of the gorgeous East, proudly reminding us of the - grandeur of our Empire. (treat names echo in our ears. Abdul Karim Khan, Miihammed Ismail, Malik Slier Bahadar are riding there to honour and defend our King. The Aidos-de-Canips to the follow in ail ‘the variety of their purposes and uniforms. The Volunteer and Territorial Forces are followed by the Militia, and Special Reserve!., .There is',not a.force which lias not its honoured representative, and as the procession passes we see thtMvholo Army, as it were, in little. The General Officers Commanding in Chief precede by a span General Sir John French, the Inspecor-Gonoral of the Forces, and the Duke of Eifo, the Lord Lieutenant of the County of London, suggesting by bis presence that London takes her especial part in this spectacle of the Army. The field-marshals with their batons ride apart, and the crowd as it recognises Lord Roberts rends the air with its cheers. Then follows a pause, and the spectators fix their eyes on the Royal stand, rapidly filled by the privileged guests of the King. As the Prince of Wales, the Princess Mary, and their brothersouter them is an outburst of applause. The Prince, having pub off the lofty responsibility of yesterday, confronts the scene with a certain gaiety of demeanour. The high personages who surround him belong no longer as they belonged in the Abbey, to the history of the past. They are not figures iu historical pictures, but living men and# women, who have come lo see and to be seen. As they take their places the foreign military attaches ride past in their panoply, followed by the deputations of foreign officers, belonging to such historic regiments as the King’s Austrian Field-Howitzers, the King’s German Dragoon Guards, and the King’s Spanish Infantry. Their accoutrements gleam and glitter with a greater brilliance then the accoutrements of our own soldiers. Exotic in their magnificence, they form a per- i foot contrast to tire frontiersmen from Canada and South Africa, who remind us of onr world-wide rosponsi-
bility in war and peace. As a spectacle, the pageant of yesterday was beyond praise and beyond wonder. While yon watched it you lived through a rapid jinge of the “Thousand and One Nights.” The .•.words and lances, seen tlnough the sombre light of a cloudy day, had a tempered brilliance. The uniforms, rad and blue, the gold tabards, the milit try music, now falling as one band faded into the distance, now taken up again as another approached, did honour to a nation of soldiers, “(lad Save the King,” heard as the lloyal. carriage approached, echoed the sentiments ol loyalty which were in every breast. In brief, all (lie splendid trappings of war were there, and h i it not lie forgotten that our King visited ids city like a soldier. The;e is one other point which we like to note. We have not always proved ourselves masters of the spectacular arts. Processions wo remember, huddled together and hastily conceived, as though the purpose of a spectacle were not display, but to convey burses and carriages as vapidly as possible from one place to another. There was no sign of baste in (lie King's procession to tbe city. Those who designed it understood that the essence of spectacle is pause. The human eye cannot accept two impressions at the same time. After it lias seen one vision of bravery it clamours for rest. And this lirst
o'! o.r.
Log in