party rode, the Duke of Cambridge and an escort accompanying it, while a
body-guard of princes followed, the Prince of Wales being mounted on a
golden chestnut horse and sharing with his mother the cheers of the
throng. Preceding this escort and the queen's carriage was a series of
carriages in which were seated the sumptuously appareled Indian princes,
clothed in cloth of gold and wearing turbans glittering with diamonds
and other precious gems. Prominent in the group of mounted princes was
the German Crown Prince Frederick, who succeeded to the throne as
Emperor Frederick III. in the following March and died in the following
June, in less than a year from his appearance in the Jubilee. But there
was no presage of his quick-coming death in his present appearance, his
white uniform and plumed silver helmet attracting general admiration,
while he sat his horse as proudly as a knight of old and was covered
with medals and decorations significant of his prowess in battle. A
gorgeous cavalcade of natives of India completed the procession, than
which none of greater brilliance had ever been seen in London streets.
In the Abbey were gathered from nine to ten thousand spectators, of the
noblest families of the land, and dressed in their most effective
attire, while the lights brought out the glitter of thousands of
gleaming gems. The queen herself, while dressed in rich black, wore a
bonnet of white Spanish lace that glittered with diamonds.
[Illustration: WINDSOR CASTLE, NORTH FRONT.]
As she entered the Abbey the organ pealed forth the strains of a
triumphal march. There followed a Jubilee Thanksgiving Service, brief
and simple, and special prayers by the Archbishop of Canterbury. As a
finale to the impressive scene the queen, moved to deep emotion,
embraced with warm affection the princes and princesses of her house,
and, with a deep bow to her foreign guests, withdrew from the scene, to
return to the palace over the same route and through similar
demonstrations of enthusiastic loyalty.
All over England and Ireland and in the colonies the day was celebrated
by joyous celebrations, and in foreign lands, especially in the United
States, the British residents fittingly honored the festive occasion.
On the following day, in Hyde Park, London, the queen drove in state
down a long and happy line of twenty-seven thousand school-children, who
had been made happy by a banquet and various amusements, besides being
given a multitude of toys. The special feature of the occasion was the
presentation by the queen of a specially manufactured jubilee-ring,
which she gave with a kind speech to a very happy twelve-year-old girl
who had attended school for several years without missing a session.
There was also a review of fifty-six thousand volunteers at Aldershot, a
grand review of one hundred and thirty-five warships at Spithead, and
other ceremonies, one of the chief of which was the laying by the queen,
on the 4th of July, of the foundation stone of the Imperial Institute in
the Albert Hall, this Institute being intended to stand as a sign of the
essential unity of the British Empire.
The well-loved queen of the British nation was to live to celebrate in
health and strength another jubilee year, that of the sixtieth
anniversary of her reign, a distinction in which she stands alone in
the history of the island kingdom. George III., who came nearest, died a
few months before the completion of his sixty years' period. Had he
lived to fulfil it there would have been no celebration, for he had
become a broken wreck, blind and hopelessly insane, a man who lived
despised and died unmourned.
But Victoria, though nearly eighty years of age, had still several years
to live and was fully capable of performing the duties of her position.
No monarch of England had reigned so long, none had enjoyed to so great
an extent the love and respect of the people, in no previous reign had
there been an equal progress in all that conduces to happiness and
prosperity, in none had the dominion of the throne of Great Britain so
widely extended, and it was felt for many reasons desirable to make the
Diamond Jubilee, as it was termed, the occasion for the most magnificent
demonstration that either England or the world had ever yet seen.
In all its features the observance lasted a month. It was not confined
to the British Isles, but extended to the dominions of the queen
throughout the world, in all of which some form of festive celebration
took place. But the chief and great event of the occasion was the
unrivalled procession in London on the 22d of June, 1897, an affair in
which all the world took part, not only representatives of the
wide-sweeping possessions of the British crown, but dignitaries from
most of the other nations of the world being present to add grandeur
and completeness to the splendid display.
To describe it in full would need far more space than we have at
command, and we must confine ourselves to its salient features. It began
at midnight of the 21st, at which hour, under a clear, star-lit sky, the
streets were already thronged with people in patient waiting and the
bells of all London in tumultuous peal announced the advent of the
jubilee day, while from the vast throng ringing cheers and the singing
of "God Save the Queen" hailed the happy occasion.
When the new day dawned and the auspicious sunlight brightened the
scene, the streets devoted to the procession, more than six miles in
length, appeared one vast blaze of color and display of decorations, the
jubilee colors, red, white and blue, being everywhere seen, while the
medley of wreaths, festoons, banners, colored globes and balloons,
pennons, shields, fir and laurel evergreens, and other emblems of
festivity, were innumerable and bewildering in their variety.
The march began at 9.45, and came as a welcome relief to the vast throng
that for hours had been wearily waiting. Its first contingent was the
colonial military procession, in which representatives of the whole
world seemed present in distinctive attire. It was a moving picture of
soldiers from every continent and many of the great isles of the sea,
massed in a complex and extraordinary display.
Chief in command, following a squadron of the Royal Horse Guards, rode
Lord Roberts, the famed and popular general, who was hailed with an
uproar of shouts of "Hurrah for Bobs!" Close behind him came a troop of
the Canadian Hussars and the Northwest mounted police, escorting Sir
Wilfred Laurier, the premier of Canada. Premier Reid, of New South
Wales, followed, escorted by the New South Wales Lancers and the Mounted
Rifles, with their gray sombreros and black cocks' plumes.
In rapid succession, escorting the premiers of the several colonies,
came other contingents of troops, each wearing some distinctive uniform,
including those of Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, Cape Colony, South
Australia, Newfoundland, Tasmania, Natal and West Australia. Then came
mounted troops from many other localities of the British empire,
reaching from Hong Kong in the East to Jamaica in the West, and fairly
girdling the globe in their wide variety.
Among the oddities of this complex multitude we may name the Zaptiehs
from Cyprus, wearing the Turkish fez and bonnet; the olive-faced Borneo
Dyaks; the Chinese police from Hong Kong, with saucepan-like hats
shading their yellow faces; the Royal Niger Hausses, with their shaved
heads and shining black skins; and other picturesquely attired examples
of the men of varied climes.
Such was the colonial parade, a marvellous display from the "far-thrown"
British realm. It was followed by the home military parade, which
formed a carnival of gorgeous costume and color; scarlet and blue, gold,
white and yellow; shining cuirasses and polished helmets, waving plumes
and glittering tassels; splendid trappings for horses and more splendid
ones for men; horse and foot and batteries of artillery; death-dealing
weapons of every kind; all marching to the stirring music of richly
accoutred bands and under treasured banners for which the men in the
ranks were ready to die.
Led by Captain Ames, the tallest man in the British army, followed by
four of the tallest troopers of the Life Guards,--a regiment of very
tall men--the soldierly procession, as it wound onward under the
propitious sun, seemed like nothing so much as some bright stream of
burnished gold flowing between dark banks of human beings.
The colonial and military parade having passed, there followed that part
of the display to which all this was preliminary, the royal procession,
in which her Majesty the Queen was once more to show her venerable form
to her assembled people. Preceding the gorgeous chariot of the queen,
with its famous eight cream-colored Hanoverian horses, appeared its
military escort, a glittering cavalcade of splendidly uniformed
officers, its chief figures being Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-chief of
the Army, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of
Connaught, the Duke of Westminster, and the Lord Lieutenant of London.
In the escort were also included foreign military and naval dignitaries,
in alphabetical order, beginning with Austria and ending with the United
States, the latter represented by General Nelson A. Miles, in full
uniform and riding a splendid horse. The whole was bewildering in its
variety. From Germany came a deputation of the First Prussian Dragoon
Guards, splendid looking soldiers, sent as a special compliment from the
Kaiser. But most brilliant of all was a group of officers of the
Imperial Service Troops of India, in the most gorgeous of uniforms.
Behind these came in two-horse landaus the special envoys from the
various American and European nations.
The escort of princes included the Marquis of Lorne, son-in-law of the
queen, the Duke of York, the Duke of Fife, and among notable foreign
princes, the Grand Duke Servius of Russia, the Crown Prince Dando of
Montenegro, and Mohammed Ali Khan, brother of the Khedive of Egypt, who
rode a pure white Arabian charger.
The hour of eleven had passed when Queen Victoria descended the steps of
the palace and entered the awaiting carriage, each of whose horses was
led by a "walking man" in the royal livery and a huntsman's black-velvet
cap, while the postilions were dressed in scarlet and gold coats, white
trousers and riding boots, each livery having cost $600.
Through miles of wildly enthusiastic people the carriage wound, the
chief feature of its progress being the formal crossing of the boundary
of ancient London at Temple Bar, where the old ceremony of the
submission of the city to the sovereign was performed, the Lord Mayor
presenting the hilt of the city sword--"Queen Elizabeth's pearl
sword,"--presented by the queen to the corporation during a ceremony in
1570. The touching of the hilt by the queen, in acceptance of
submission, completed this ceremony, and the carriage rolled on to St.
Paul's Cathedral, where a brief service was performed.
The next stop was at the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor presented
the Lord Mayoress and the attendant maids of honor handed the queen a
beautiful silver basket filled with gorgeous orchids. The palace was
finally reached at 1.45, when a gun in Hyde Park announced that the
procession was over, and the great event had passed into history. An
outburst of cheers followed this final salute and the vast throng,
millions in number, broke and vanished, carrying to their homes vivid
memories of the most brilliant affair the great metropolis of London had
ever seen.
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15), by Charles Morris