THE ROYAL BRIDE.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 18764, 20 December 1935, Page 5

THE ROYAL BRIDE.

A VISION IN WHITE. WOMEN BESIEGE PALACE GATES. Lady Alice Scott drove smiling to Buckingham Palace—smiling with full friendliness to this side and to that as she rode, \\lth her brother the Duke of Buccleuch beside her, in her. glass -coach of semi-state, away from her ■home and the close-crowded sunlit length of Constitution Hill, says F. G. Prince-White in the London Daily Mall. That glimpse of her the people had in the bright morning—was ever a November morning more lovely, or more opportune in its loveliness.?— must for ever shine in ihc public memory like a flash of the sunshine which streamed about her. They had stood in their thousands, hour after hour, watching—until at last Lady Alice appeared—a vision clothed in softly gleaming white, with gleaming lilies in her hand.

Myrtle Sprig

In this bouquet was a sprig of myrtle grown from a sprig taken from Queen Victoria’s wedding -bouquet. Every Royal bride has since carried a piece of this myrtle for luck. The veil she wqre was draped over her shoulders, so that she seemed to be looking out between w’lsps of spring-time -cloud. Keeping thus her face uncovered. Lady Alice was obeying the ancient custom which forbids a Royal bride to veil her fa-ce —a custom established in days when it was deemed necessary to enforce safeguards against attempts to foist an unauthorised bride on a Royal bridegroom. Woman’s Cry. It was a loud cry from one woman who had fixed her vanity mirror to a stick that set the dense masses of people outside the Palace undulating like a field of corn when a sudden strong wind sweeps over it. A long-drawn “A-a-ahl" broke from the crowds —and to the sound of it and, presently, to wild cheering, the bridal coach, drawn at a trot by a pair of horses, and preceded and followed by Metropolitan Mounted Police, -came rolling into Queen’s -Gardens. What a glittering moment it was. The -astonishingly auspicious sun shone full on the bride, filled her glass -coach with its glory, and hotly inten T sifTed the scarlet -of her ' brother’s Grenadier Guards uniform. There was time enough to reply with cheering and madly waved hats and handkerchiefs to that whitegloved hand fluttering in the coach; then the coach vanished into the palace courtyard and the great iron gates slowly closedOne woman in the orowd remained silent and well-nigh overwhelmed with delight; she lay In an invalid -chair wheeled close -to the gate, and -she had received from the -bride a smile intended all for herself.

Rush To Gates. As though urged by a command, thousands of men and women surged suddenly towards the gates. Mounted police were helpless to stem the tide, and when the moment came for the changing of the guard the relief was nearly prevented from reaching the men on sentry duty. At last the long windows near the balcony were pulled apart, and Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught, with Princess Helena Victoria and Princess Marie Louise came into view. The crowds swayed and rocked with excitement; a roar of cheering rolled up from the thronged Mall; hats fluttered like autumn leaves wherever the eye looked. People clustered about the Victoria Memorial cried: “Long live the King!” They saw before most others that the King, in Field Marshal’s uniform, had followed the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester on to the balcony. A keen wind was blowing now, and the King was hatless, but he insisted on taking his place beside his son and his new daughter-in-law, and acknowledging the people’s greeting. A Homely Greeting. 110 stood there, and the Queen too, and the Duchess of York with her children, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Bose; and the Princess Royal—a very happy, homely group, laughingly responding to the crowds’ cheers with waving of hands and handkerchiefs. The bride spoke animatedly to her husband, gazing up at him, and then both waved vigorously -to the farstrctcliing crowds below.

The King and Queen waved, also; and so did the little Princesses, who leaned over the balustrade, eager to see as much as they could. The King remained close to them, and, bending down, patted their fair head*.