INSIDE THE ABBEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7477, 11 August 1902, Page 4

INSIDE THE ABBEY.

£ SCENE OF GREAT MAGNIFICENCE. A BLAZE OF COLOUR AND FLASHING DIAMONDS. (Received August 10, 4,24 p.m.) r LONDON, August 9. The Abbey presented am appearance of great magnificence. The galleries were bo arranged as to avoid hiding the leading architectural features, the contour of the fcuilding, the nave and: the choir. The galleries behind the Peers were lined with Mayors of boroughs, representatives of the 'working classes, NoncomfGrmist delegates, past and present Imperial Ministers and their vives, officers and their wives and the Colonial Agents-General and their wives. Court or military uniform was general, and the ladies wore low dresses, making a mass of brilliant colour, in which the magnificent

gala dresses of tl^ Indian- Rajahs were conspicuously splendid. 1 A new carpet had been laid from the west door of tb© Abbey to the dais or platfoim, which was raised three steps at the intersection of the choir transepts with the chancel, and made a magnificent groundwork for the picture. On each side of it the colours of robes and dresses ran like a gay ribbon. The dais, covered with a magnificent Indian carpet, accommodated the two' enthronisation chairs. A carpet of darker hue was spread over the vestry space "to the altar steps, excepting where lay a large square of Indian fabric on which the ancient Coronation chair stood. Two smaller chairs, previously arranged to stand at the foot of the daib before the enthronisation chairs, were not; ■used. The north and south transepts were occupied by slightly sloping galleries. In the south were the Peers in scarlet robes or mantles and fur-tipped capes, carrying their coronets. Chairs facing the dais were occupied by the Prince of Wales and the Dukes of. Connaught and Cambridge. In the north transept were the Peeresses hi Court dresses and scarlet trains and coronets, and such a wealth oi diamonds was never before seen. Above the Peers' and Peeresses' galleries to the wheel windows of outer walls extended galleries accommodating members of the House of Commons and their wives, mostly in Court levee costumes. There were some brilliant uniforms. Many ladies wore ostrich feathers or coronets. The speotacle of thb two transepts was the most" brilliant piece of colour in the whole pagieant. The flash of diamonds in iahe Peeresses' gallery, and especially on the trains and skirts of the J ladies-in-waiting when they arrived at the foot of the/platform, was like the ripple of sunshine on rough water or the scintillation of dewdrops ip. the morning sunlight.