Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1953-05-20, Page 20Procession Travels Historic Route (Continued from page 6.) by dull Northumberland Avenue to the Embankment and to Parlia- ment Square and so to West- minster Abbey. On her return from the Abbey the crowned Queen comes by storied Whitehall, past the Banquet Hall which Inigo Jones built for James I and from which James's son, Charles I, stepped to the scaffold:. past Downing Street where Premiers live and past all the chief Ministries:. on through Trafalgar Square again, and on to our most gregarious male streets —Pall Mall, St. James's Street and Piccadilly, where London's chief clubs hive and mildly buzz. ManyExclusive Clubs In Pall Mall the chief clubs are the Athenaeum, the Travellers, the Reforin, the United Service, the Oxford and Cambridge, the United Universities and the Malborough (founded, they say, by Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, be- cause he was not allowed to smoke at White's); the largest is the Royal Automobile and , near it stands the blitzed shell that was the Carlton. These lay monaster- ies compose a street unique in the world, and the most stately char- acteristic thoroughfare in London. St. James's Street, with its Palace at the bottom and Holland's seem- ly Brooks's Club, White's Club (the oldest club) and Boodle's with its elegant fanlike front and others, may dispute this. The street has also a bootmaker whose wares al- most establish your social status tend a wine merchant whose great scales have weighed (and kept the records of) royalties, peers and notable folk for 200 years. Stately Buildings Piccadilly with the Green Park bowering one side at its western end, its happy undulation that so enlivens its distance, its hotels and club buildings and old family man- sions (now /nearly all offices) ending in Ansley House where the Duke of Wellington lived and now is his museum, is London's most charming street. And so north byes the East Carriage Way of Hyde Park, alongside Park Lane that is becoming the boulevard of fashion- able hotel life, to the Marble Arch that once stood in front of Buckingham. Palace. A Show Street Then eastward by Oxford Street with its vast shop and hinterland of eminent squares and streets. At Oxford Circus the Procession moves south down Regent Street, one of the few London show streets that were designed as a whole. It was built as a grand driveway for the Prince Regent to use in his outings from his Carl- ton House to his new Regent Park. It was rebuilt between the wars, fronted with Portland Stone, and leads to that centre of London rejoicing, Piccadilly Circus, with as its centre, Eros on his fountain. Passes Theatres The route then wends south through Haymarket where are London's most ancient and prim- mest shopfront (a snuffmaker's) and its prestige theatre,'the Hay- market, as well as Beerbohm Tree's Her Majesty's. Then past Norway House and the massive .Canada House to Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch —and the crowned Queen drives along the Mall again past Queen Victoria on her marble throne, and so home to the Palace with the acclamations of the nation ringing .and sounding around her. 'o of the Dymoke family acted as King's Champion. He had the right to appear, fully armed and on horseback, at the banquet after the Coronation and challenge to mortal combat anyone who dared to gainsay the Sov- ereign's right to the Crown: This picturesque custom was afterwards abandoned, together with the ban- quet, and the Dymokes have since then been given a less colourful part in the celebrations. Another hereditary right to take part in the procession is that of Vis- count Dudhope, who will bear the Standard of Scotland as his fore- bears, the Scrymogeour—Wedder- burns—the first name means "a good fighter" — have done for generations. Began With King Charles I These men, with other represent- atives of the Church, the nobility, and the Orders of Chivalry, will be by the Queen's side when she en- Lives Of Queens Basis For Pageant In English Village A 'pageant based on episodes in the' lives of the eight Queens who have ruled England will be pre- sented in a garden at the village of Headley, in Hampshire, during the Coronation month of June. Headley is 45 miles south of London. ters by the West Door of the Ab- bey while the choir sings the 122nd Psalm, as they have since the Cor- onation of Charles I: "I Was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the House of the Lord." And, when the ceremony is fin- ished, they will escort their Queen, now wefiting the glittering Imperial Crown and carrying a sceptre in each hand, out into the bell-loud streets where her people are wait- ing to greet Elizabeth the Second. The Standard of Ireland The Orb, a golden globe sur- mounted by a jewelled cross, will be carried into the Abbey by Field- Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, Mediterranean Supreme Command- er at the end of the war. Others in the procession who have given distinguished service to their country are Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, V.C.—who will carry the Standard of Ireland— and three holders of the Military Cross: the Earl of Derby, carrying the Standard of England. Vis- count Allendale, and Earl Fortes- cue, who as Knights of the Garter will hold the golden canopy over the Queen during the Anointing ceremony. The Union Standard will be borne in the procession by Captain J. L, M. Dymoke, whose ancestors have taken part in Coronations since the 14th century. Up to the Coronation of George IV the head {Autry Aillafriff CORONATION SUPPLEMENT MAY, 1058 Taxpayers Don't Bear Royal Household Costs Income From Duchy Of Cornwall Greatly Exceeds Annual Expenses The Civil List—as the authorized payments to the Royal Household are called—provide an annual sum of £475,000 to meet the cost of what is probably one of the most complicated "organizations" in the world. It looks like a lot of money, but since the value of the pound has more than halved since the days of King Edward VII, who received £470,000, it is clear that the present Sovereign must make do on half the original income. The next point to be perfectly clear about is that this sum is not personal income. It maintains not simply a per- sonal home but a complex, smoothly-running organization which is a vital and valued part of the Commonwealth. "Her Majesty's Household" is a broad, general term embodying the state and constitutional /machinery that re- volves around the Sovereign. The Select Committee which recently reported on the Civil List, commented,. in fact, on the enormous increase in the scope and burden of the Sov- ereign's duties. Royal visits within Britain itself are in- numerable; they give great pleasure and are an important part of a Queen's duties. The number of public functions increases. There are more official visitors to receive, for instead of only one Commonwealth Government there are now several, whose members have the right to be received when they visit Britain. The number of Ambassadors ac- credited to the Court of St. James grows larger every year. With the decreasing value of money, the late King George effected many economies, and the Select Committee agree that there is no scope for further saving. Not only is the Royal Household run with an economical efficiency which some business houses might well envy, but considering its complexity and heavy responsibilities, it costs extraordinary little. It is far less than the of a battleship. It costs less in a year than the British people gamble in a single week ; it is less than half the gross income of two famous English Dukes. and a mere pittance com- pared with the fabulous personal incomes of some Eastern poten- tates whose names are not even known to the man in the street. Revenues From Duchy The value of a monarchy such as ours cannot, of course, be mea- sured in terms of cash. What is not generally understood, however, is that in point of fact the British taxpayer does not pay a penny to- wards the expenses of the Royal Household. The Queen, who is en- titled to the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, foregoes that income, presenting it to the Exchequer and receiving instead a grant by way of the Civil List: Now the income from the Duchy of Cornwall, and from Crown Lands„ amounts to a total of £1, 212,000. Far from costing the na- tion f470,000 a year, therefore the Queen in fact makes the nation a present of very much more than that. How does the money go? The estimates are: Her Majesty's Privy Purse 60,000 Salaries of Her Majesty's Household 185,000 Expenses of Her Majesty's Household 121,800 Royal. Bounty, Alms and Special Services 13,200 Supplementary provision 95,000 Components of "Household" Of what does the "household" consist? One can hardly define it precisely, because some of the Sov- ereign's servants, while an import- ant part of the entourage, do not actually live at the Palace; others hold of "ce by tradition but in prac- tice have little connection with the Court. "Household" for instance, includes the Keeper of the Jewel House at the Tower of London and the Yeomen of the Guard are equally Royal servants, Broadly speaking, the Royal Household consists of a number of departments, each with a head. Some servants whose office is of extreme antiquity and who figure in the most important of functions are not paid anything but a nom- inal wage. The Heralds, for in- stance, whose office goes back to Norman times, and who figure in Proclamations, the State opening of Parliament and suchlike occa- sions receive, for their highly dec- orative duties only a few pounds a year—less than an energetic char- women can earn in Britain nowa- days by scrubbing floors, Simi- larly, many "servants" give their services free and are proud and glad to do it. Treasury Expert Lucidly for the present Queen, Sir Mick Alexander, recently ap- pointed Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the Queen, has held that post since 1936, and has served the Royal Family in vary- ing capacities for over 80 years. Looking always immaculate and The Coronation Chair made of oak in 1300-1301 has been used at every Coronation for the Crowning or anointing of the Monarch since the Coronation of Edward II. The chair is 6 ft. 91/2 inches high and when first made was enriched with gilt gesso decorations and glass mosaics. In the 17th and 18th centuries the chair was greviously mutilated but some of the original decoration remains. The Coronation Chair rests on four lions. The seat,is made to slide in and out, and in the' space beneath rests the Stone of Scone. The Coronation stone is a roughly cut rectangular hewn block of coarse-grained re,ddish grey sandstone 26 1/2 inches by 161/2 inches by 11 inches thick. IPwas placed near the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey before being incorporated in the Coronation Chair. Warriors Will Escort The Queen On Entry Into Westminster Abbey By Peter Wildeblood (London Daily Mail) • The men who led Britain's fighting forces in the war have been chosen to walk beside the Queen when she enters Westminster Abbey on Coronation Day. In January the Earl Marshal announced the names of those who have been chosen for the Queen's Procession— names which were made famous on the battlefields of Burma, of France, of the Western Desert, in the air, and at sea. The chief honour, of walking in front of the Queen carrying the St. Edward's Crown, has been given to Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham, war-time Commander- in-Chief Mediterranean and First Sea Lord. His appointment as Lord High Steward is made for Coronation Day alone. Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein will carry the Royal Standard. The Sceptre with the Cross, which contains one of the largest diamonds in the world, will be borne by Marshal of the R.A.F. Viscount Portal, who was head of Bomber Command and Chief of the Air Staff during the war. .,The office of Lord high Constable of England, w,hich was carried out at three successive Coronations by the great Duke of Wellington, has been given to Field-Marshal Vis- count Alanbrooke, the war-time Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He will walk in the procession beside the Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk. less than his 64 years, he is even- tempered, a brilliant administrator and has handled the finances of the Palace so expertly that the public were unaware that balanc- ing up was often not an easy task. Sir Ulick is enormously popu- lar with the Palace staff. His good humour and competence help them to solve all problems. His Irish ancestry and his background— Eton, Sandhurst, service with the Coldstream Guards in Egypt and Palestine, Political Secretary to the Earl of Athlone while Gover- nor-General of the Union of South Africa—have combined to make of him the perfect "Royal servant". 0 Works Of Famous Poets, Composers Get Public Preview Twelve songs for the Corona- tion, written by Britain's most dis- tinguished composers and poets will be heard for the first time on June 1, at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Composers include Ralph Vaugh- an Williams ' Sir Arthur Bliss, John Ireland, Sir George Dyson and Richard Arnell. Poets whose work is being set to music include: Walter de la Mare, Edith Sitwell, Stephen Spender Cecil Day Lewis and Henry Reed: 0 'Big Ben' Is World's Best Known Clock Towering high above Westmin- ster, 320 feet above the members of Parliament below, is the best known clock in the world — Big Ben. It figures in millions bf pic- ture postcards, thousands of paint- ings, innumerable newsreels and press photographs. Its chimes have been broadcast by. the B.B.C. ever since, as an experiment, they were used to ring out the old year on December 81, 1923, and ring in the new, and the scheduled news bul- letins in Britain: they are broad- cast forty times a day in overseas tranmissions. World Hears Chimes At the Coronation, too, this 93- year-old clock will have its vital part to play. Hundreds of thous- ands of spectators will watch its giant hands as the hour of the arrival of the Royal Procession at the Abbey draws nearer. The whole world will hear its chimes as it tunes in to hear of the great event, And Londoners, especially, will feel for Big Ben a renewed affec- tion; for them the clock is a sym- bol of the dignity and romance of a great city.