Day after day other ceremonial occasions arrived, including
banquets, balls, assemblies and public festivities of many kinds, from
the feeding of four thousand of the poor at Glasgow to a yacht race
around the British Islands.
The great Jubilee celebration, however, was reserved for the 21st of
June, the chief streets of London being given over to a host of
decorators, who transformed them into a glowing bower of beauty. The
route set aside for the imposing procession was one long array of
brilliant color and shifting brightness almost impossible to describe
and surpassing all former festive demonstrations.
The line of the royal procession extended from Buckingham Palace to
Westminster Abbey, along which route windows and seats had been secured
at fabulous prices, while the throng of sightseers that densely crowded
the streets was in the best of good humor.
As the procession moved slowly along from Buckingham Palace a strange
silence fell upon the gossipping crowd as they awaited the coming of the
aged queen, on her way to the old Abbey to celebrate in state the
fiftieth year of her reign. When the head of the procession moved onward
and the royal carriages came within sight, the awed feeling that had
prevailed was followed by one of tumultuous enthusiasm, volley after
volley of cheers rending the air as the carriage bearing the royal lady
passed between the two dense lines of loyal spectators.
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