September 24, 2025 • 31 mins
This intriguing book begins with a theoretical exploration of a catastrophic geological event but quickly evolves into a profound reflection on the essence of English identity. As it unfolds, it culminates in a passionate defense of America, offering readers a unique perspective on both nations. (Summary by Judi Mason)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eight, Part one of the Evacuation of England by L. P. Gratacap.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Events were
moving rapidly ever since the Parliament, by a legislative decree,
had authorized the desertion of England, and the eventful day
(00:20):
approached when the King and his household, the Parliament itself,
and the Church and the titled Estates should in a
formal and expressive manner leave England's shores. The mass of
the population had been diligently hunting about for refuge and occupation.
Steamers and ships had scattered in all directions. The fleeing multitudes.
(00:45):
Relatives abroad, friends and even acquaintances offered homes and employment.
No utility now was too small to be considered, nor
any designation too insignificant to merit attention. This scamper ring
was largely among those who felt the pinch already of
idleness and the diminishing chance of work among operatives and workmen.
(01:09):
Clerks and the breadwinners of the middle class. The nobleman
and the pauper did not stir. The English nation had
decreed through its legislature that the evacuation of the country
should be conducted with pageantry, that the solemn parting should
be enrolled in all time honored ceremony and stately pomp
(01:32):
with which kings had been crowned, and for which, with
all its heart and mind the English nature cries out
with unappeasable hunger. So the moment for the King's departure,
which meant the official desertion of the old home, might
justly be compared to the flight of the Queen Bee
in the Bee Colony, when her faithful followers swarm after
(01:56):
and upon her, and with resolute constancy create a new
city about her inviolable person. The King was to leave
England in June nineteen ten. And when he left, with
sumptuous and melancholy observance, with splendor of color and depth
and power of music, with uniform and ritual, with prayer
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and chorus and prophecy, with august and intolerable grandeur, with
the art of tradition and the ornaments of invention, he
was to pass down to Tilbury and sail away beyond
Grave's End, to the new realm of his possession on
the shores of Australia. It was a pretty hard thing
to believe It was a harder thing to do, but
(02:43):
it was to be done with all the gorgeous effectiveness
which accumulated traditions of centuries and the practice of every day,
and the mere resources in artifices and equipment of a
magnificent realm could display. The day came with splendid beauty.
The sun shone over in England, which somewhat returned to
(03:04):
the flowery loveliness of its old and sweet estate. The
city had been cleared, though the snowfalls had reached the
most unexpected depth, and the severity of the winter had
been appalling. The meteorologists discovered the fact that the western
and northwestern zones of extreme precipitation those of eighty inches,
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had moved inward and had even exceeded this maximum, and
the condition of the country was really extraordinary and desperate.
The immense accumulations of snow in the outlying districts had
risen to such heights that the low long houses of
the peasantry were covered, and the aspect of the country
was that of a Labrador landscape transplanted to southern latitudes,
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where trees, stone walls and villages assumed the place of
the more familiar tundra plains and stone floored plans. Suffering
had been very general, and the importunity of nature had
done more to convince the people that the necessity of
removal was an actual threat, not to be avoided or placated,
(04:14):
than the speeches, the tracts of the scientific societies, or
the deliberations of statesmen and editors. But in London on
this twelfth of June, though the air bore the strange
traces of the changed climate in its tingling sharpness, yet
this exhilaration only served the purpose of adding swiftness to
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the movement of the hosts of people in the streets,
and a new and wonderful tremor of excitement to their
eagerness in awaiting the development of the day's great preparations.
In the morning, the king was to be enthroned in
Westminster Abbey and to receive the homage of the peers, and,
as usual at a coronation, the day itself was inaugurated
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with the firing of a royal salute at sunrise, a
measure of the august and overpowering rights and observances that
mark the assumption of a king's rule was now to
be gone through with as a symbol and memento before
the king transferred his throne to another land, and this
ceremonial was emblematic of the unbroken allegiance of the English
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nation to his removed majesty. The King was to ascend
the theater of the abbey and be lifted into his
throne by the archbishops and bishops and other peers of
the Kingdom, and being enthronized or placed therein. All the
great officers, those that bear the swords and scepters, and
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the rest of the nobles should stand round about the
steps of the throne, and the archbishops standing before the King,
should say the exhortation, beginning with the words stand firm
and hold fast from henceforth the seat of state, of
royal and imperial dignity, which is this day delivered unto
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you in the name and by the authority of Almighty God,
and by the hands of us the bishops and servants
of God, though unworthy, et cetera, et cetera. And then
the homage being offered and accepted, the King attended and
accompanied the four swords, being the sword of Mercy, the
sword of Justice, to the spirituality, the sort of Justice
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to the temporality, and the sword of State were to
be carried before him. He should then descend from his throne,
crowned and carrying his scepter and rod in his hands,
should go into the area eastward of the theater and
pass on through the door on the south side of
the altar into King Edward's chapel, the organ and other instruments,
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all the while playing. The King should, then, standing before
the altar, deliver the scepter with the dove to the
archbishops ship, who would lay it upon the altar. There,
the King would then be disrobed of his imperial mantle
and be arrayed in his royal robe of purple velvet
by the Lord Great Chamberlain. The archbishop should then place
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the orb in his Majesty's left hand. Then his Majesty
should proceed through the choir to the west door of
the abbey in the same manner as he came, wearing
his crown and bearing in his right hand the scepter
with the cross and in his left the orb, all
peers wearing their coronets, and the archbishops and bishops their caps.
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The interior arrangements in the abbey were familiar from the
west door, where the procession should enter, to the screen
which divides choir from nave. Two rows of galleries were
to be erected on each side of the center aisle,
the one gallery level with the vaultings, the other with
the summit of the western door. These galleries should have
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their fronts fluted with crimson cloth, richly draped at the
top and decorated with broad gold fringe of the bottom.
On the floor of the center aisle, slightly raised platform
or carpeted ways should be laid down along which the
King and Queen in procession should pass to the choir.
This was to be matted over and covered with crimson claw.
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On the pavement of the isle. Bordering this carpeted way
should stand the soldiery as a fence against interference. The
theater where the principal parts of the ceremony were to
be enacted, lies immediately under the central tower of the abbey,
and was a square formed by the intersection of the
choir and the transepts, extending nearly the whole breadth of
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the choir. On this square, a platform was to be erected,
ascended by five steps. The summit of this platform, and
also the highest step leaf eating to it, was to
be covered with the richest cloth of gold. From that
step down to the flooring of the theater, all was
covered with carpet of rich red or purple color, bordered
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with gold. In the center of the theater, the sumptuously
draped chair was to be placed for the Sovereign, in
which he receives the homage of the peers. This interior
pomp and splendor escaped the observation of Laocraft. Though he
was not unfamiliar with the details of the solemn pageant,
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but now it hardly interested him. His mind, by a
natural emancipation from the thrall of such spectacles, dwelt rather
on the attitude of the people in this extreme peril
and solicitude. He felt inquisitive to learn their feelings, their hopes,
their cohesiveness in the changed estate. Were they likely to
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resolve into a chaos of preferences with only the cry
of Sovkipo in their mouths? Or would they follow the
new destinies and preserve the nation? At length? The populace
were coming into their own. It was pretty evident that
a king and queen and regalia, and peers and peeresses,
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and a much surpliced clergy, would not make a nation
without the workers, the rent payers, the men of action,
the breadwinners, the clerks, artisans and merchants, the householder and
his family, And that the sacred classes would be suddenly
subjected to a reductio ad absurdom if they formed the
only inhabitants of the new regime, and their titles lost
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their raison debt. With the disappearance of the untitled mass.
After the rendering of the homage at the abbey, the
procession was to take place, and the King, arriving at Chilbury,
with the royal family, a selection of the peers, the
highest episcopal prelates, and certain representative men from the Commons,
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including the Ministry, would be received on the dreadnought and
with a glorious escort of the largest battleships, carrying the
royal equipage, the furniture of Windsor Castle and of Saint
James's Palace and of the Buckingham Mansion, the archives of
the Parliament at least a portion steam away from England
to Australia to Melbourne. This nucleus of government holding the
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inseparable insignia and the actual essence of the English nation
would there with pomp and solemn allegations, with rolling music
and pious prayers, with thunders of the guns by the
navy and the salute of the army be as it
were reinstalled. But the route of the procession was not
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to be straight out of London. It comprised a broader purpose.
It was proposed to circumvallate London, to impregnate it with
the sentiment of the King's lya. It should be traversed
and penetrated in all directions, gathering thus the public allegiance
and absorbing its loyalty, shedding the effulgence of the royal
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splendor upon the populace, and in chaining them anew to
the principal and fact of English sovereignty. It was a
stupendous project. It involved stations and relays. Camps of the
military were to be established at Saint James Park, at
Victoria Park, at Regent's Park, at the West End, near Paddington,
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at Wormwood Scrubs, and in the southern districts around Clapham
Common and towards Putney. The King was to stop at
resting places, and in the largest local churches, a reduced
form of the homage was to be instituted, involving the enthronization,
with the displays of the regalia, and the jubilation and
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the reverence of the people expressed as always in the
shouts God Save King, Long Live King Edward, made the
King live forever. The bells of the churches were to ring,
the houses were to hang out their banners. Flags were
to cover the streets. Bands stationed on prominent balconies at
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points covering the entire long journey through and around the
city were to play national airs, that so there might
be generated an overwhelming enthusiasm, a tumult of devotion, and
thus constrained the Englishmen afresh in the religion of the
nation's immortality. It was finally conceived, this elevation of the King.
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It was gorgeously executed. The imagination of the people was
tremendously impressed, and the ark of the covenant of the
internal supremacy of the English crown seemed thus visibly incorporated
and presented to them. The procession was glittering, and it
was majestic. It ponderously emphasized the English idea There were
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really two processions, the first from Westminster to Buckingham Palace,
the second through London. In the first, the King issued
from Westminster, his crown born before him, but holding in
his right hand the scepter with the cross and in
his left the orb. Then began the most wonderful state
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ride through London, the superb chariot of the King, surrounded
by heralds, kings and arms. Pursuvance with judges, councilors, lords
and dignitaries was followed by the open carriages of the nobility.
The king was immersed in color garter. Principal King at
Arms was a miracle of dress. He wore a frock
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or tabard, crimson and golden blazoned with the quarters of
the United Kingdom. Then there was the Clarencia of the
South and Norroy of the North, and the heralds of Lancaster, Somerset, Richmond,
all wonderfully bedight, and the perceuvante rouge, croix, rouge, dragon,
portcullis and blue mantle, looking like the genie of a
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Christmas pantomime. And here with the King were the Lord Chamberlain,
the Lord Steward, and the Master of the house, and
there followed this cavalcade, surrounding the king like a many
colored fringe. The carriages of the nobles, wherein all the
signs of degree order rank were sumptuously shown. Here the
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robes of the peers crimson velvet edged with minever the
capes furred with the same, and powdered with bars or
rows of ermine, according to degree, rolled together in a
bank of oscillating glory. Beneath the mantles, a court dress,
a uniform, or regimentals were decried. The coronets were even worn,
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and as the scintillating groups passed, eager admirers separated the
coronet of the baron with its six silver equidistant balls,
from the coronet of a viscount with sixteen, from the
coronet of an earl, with eight balls raised on points
and with glistening gold strawberry leaves between the points, from
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the coronet of a marquis with four gold strawberry leaves
alternating with four silver balls, and from the coronet of
a duke with the eight gold strawberry leaves. Nor did
beauty hesitate to add its witchery to the sports of splendor,
and in behalf of that ancient idea of monarchy, which
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now was enlisted against a deep peril of mistrust and repudiation.
The pyrrises formed part of the procession, their scarlet kirtles
over the petticos of white satin and lace, their flowing
sleeves slashed and furred, Their cushioned trains, heaped in confusion
in the carriages, and relieved by shining plaques of silver silk,
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were still more bewilderingly graced by jewelry, by oceans of gems,
resplendently transfigured in the blazing sun. In this momentous pageant,
the limits of the spectacular were invaded, even distended, in
which some saw not only a lack of good taste,
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but the pressure of a little fear. Even the church
advanced the bold bid for admiration and wonder. It sent
out its archbishops, bishops, rectors, cannons, prebendaries, and deacons to
compose parts of the vast exhibit to be interwoven in
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the variegated human carpet that filled the streets. Before the
churches that were passed, choirs gathered and sang melodiously. The
strong religious fiber of the englishmen and women was sedulously
appealed to or else. It was the elemental flaming forward
of their powerful conviction. At this strange moment, there was
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less of pretense and trick than sincerity. The heart of
the people was steadfastly united with the old traditions. They
clung unbrokenly to the inheritance of English greatness. There was
no reason to doubt their faith. The route of the
second Marveloust procession was from the Abbey through Birdcage Walk
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past Victoria Monument to Procession Road to the Strand to
Fleet Street, over Ludgate Hill, past Saint Paul's to Cheapside
to Bishop Street to Shoreditch to Hackney Street and so
out of Victoria Park and Homerton back again to Highbury
Fields south by Essex Road to Pentonville Road to Euston
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Road to Marylebone Road, through Regent's Park, through Hampstead Road
to Hampstead to Westside, through Edgewood Road to High Park
and the Bayswater to Holland Park to Hammersmith Road by
Hammersmith Bridge Road to Castle Now, thence to Putney to
Battersea to Clapham to Camberwell, thence to Walworth Road, by
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London Road, by Waterloo Road to Westminster Bridge to the
Houses of Parliament, and on the banks of the River
Thames to the Tower, and on through Whitechapel, Mileland Road,
Bow Road to Bromley, to Stratford, to Barking to Tilbury.
Nothing so prodigious had ever been conceived, and the resources
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of the Empire, of the military, and the squadrons of
the colonists, who should again, as at the jubilee of
Queen Victoria present, the diversified elements of English power would
be involved at Tilbury on the Essence Bank, opposite Gravesend,
where rise the low bastions of Tilbury Fort, originally constructed
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by Henry the third King. Edward the seventh would in
a fashion diverse and with a different end in view,
also declare that he had the heart and stomach of
a king, and of a king of England too, as
had said Queen Elizabeth, but now it should be said
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by a king unappalled by the invasion of the powers
of the Air, as she was before the power of Spain,
but now said with undiminished confidence and high hope, though
said too with obedience to the supreme mandate of expulsion
before it took place. Leacraft and Thomson began their long
walk from Ludgate Hill, and Leacraft intently watched the street crowds.
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He noted also with recording interest, the groups in the
balconies with lunch baskets. The expectant air everywhere was not
unnoticeably mingled with a kind of frightened silence. There was
not much noise, no indiscriminate hubbub in the street, and
where groups were encountered hurrying to their destination, they were
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quiet and restrained. Tension was evident, a high strung expectancy
verging with impalpable approach upon tears and the agony of
penitential promises. The fundamentally religious optimism of the Englishman was confounded,
and his acceptance of invisible guidance made itself seen in
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faces desolated by the grief of tears. The preparations were
remarkable and elaborate. The windows were filled with chairs, platforms
were erected almost luxuriously, draped with red cloth and scarlet velvet,
and surging crowds in spots seemed to belie the significance
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of the portentous moment. From time to time As the
two observers walked in the middle of the street, they
stopped reluctantly to notice signs of mourning. These took on
the flom of trailing streamers of crape hung upon white cloth,
and their singularity, amid the almost mombastic surplusage of scarlet dressings,
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awoke protest and resentment. At one point, there was a
particularly conspicuous, dismal challenge to the susceptibilities of the spectators
in a balcony loaded with somber trappings, which gained a
startling prominence because of the patriotic and cheerful decorations on
either side of it. Before this lugubrious appeal, a small
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group of malcontents had gathered and were indulging in incendiary criticism.
It's no use turning a sour face to the thing.
What's got to be is got to be, And a
little heart will keep a sour stomach from making itself sick.
I say, we're a haul in the same boat, and
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cheerfulness makes pleasant company. Such a show as that hot
not to be tolerated. I say this belligerency came from
the thick lips of a red faced man who had
his coat over his arm, and whose leathern leggings codo
or knee breeches, and flaming waistcoat with a high collar
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strapped to his muscular neck by a pea green scarf.
Betokened a representative of the fancy or an ostler turned
out for a day's holiday. Indeed, I think so, squealed
a thin, short man with a red nose and a
curious habit of wiping his mouth with a yellow handkerchief.
It's hard enough for the suffering masses to leave hearth home,
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and I may say family not to be saddened more
than is natural with these funereal suggestions, well shouted a
sturdy arrival on the other limbit of the circle. Let's
tear them down. The quickest way to cure trouble is
to get rid of it. It's rotten in Sultan to
stick those weeds under our noses. Under the influence us
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of these defiant words, the knot of men moved towards
the objectionable drapery with evidently unfriendly intentions. But they had
not been unobserved from the inside of the house on
whose front these sad reminders hung. A window shot up
and a tall, slender woman advanced to the edge of
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the balcony. She was dressed deeply in black. Her neck
was surrounded by some white crape stuff, and the sentiment,
as Howells has it, of her dress, was a pathetic
suggestion of bereavement and misfortune. Her hair, yet luxuriant, was
plentifully sprinkled with gray. Her face had the authorized look
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of nobility and distinction. She was yet prepossessing, though the
crowding years had brought her past middle life. The distinctive
impressions she made upon Leocraft as he and Thompson, somewhat
withdrawn watched, the deneuement of this street episode was that
of abiding sorrow, patiently born, and doubtless united in her
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with Christian resignation and unsullied piety. A beautiful picture of
the englishwoman who resolutely lives her earnest life of prayer
and self sacrifice, holding intensely to her heart some fond
memory wreathed in Amaranth and Laacraft as an Englishman blessed providence,
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there were such. The men on the street were a
little abashed by the pale face and lofty mien of
the lady who had recognized their purpose, and placed herself
there to thwart it. She came forward and instantly spoke.
Her voice was excessively clear, but an underlying mellowness imparted
an extreme sweetness to its tones. My friends, you wish
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these mourning signs taken away. They offend you. But when
you know that they expressed to me the approaching loss
of all my friends, you will not. I think feels
so harshly about them. The King in a week leaves
the shores of England. The evacuation of England begins today,
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and with the king goes the great English nation. And
this wonderful city, with all its memories, with its beauty,
its historic power, its incessant interests, our common home for
all our lifetimes, will dwindle and dwindle and disappear, lost
in arctic snows, in ice, at least, so they tell us.
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But I shall stay in this house. Suffering has come
to me, it has never left me. I shall not
leave it. I mourn for those who, in going away,
die to English pride, to English love, to English devotion.
And she leaned out over the sullen men beneath her,
and die to me. These black films are for them.
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She stopped. The men, worried and puzzled in surprise, looked
a little sheepishly at each other. Oh well, said he
of the hostler type. My lady, no offense. Seeing how
you feel about it, I say, have your way. Yes, yes,
squealed the breacher. If the empty badges of mourning give anyone,
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anyone satisfaction, why it's not in reason to question their
motives in this excruciating moment, Gad the lady's right, shouted
the former belligerent, whose prompt hint had at first neatly
precipitated the riot. She's got the right ring, and I'm
damned if anyone titches the rags there, I'll bust his
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cock eyed head off his shoulders. This vociferous statement produced
a hubbub of approval and won many distinct admissions of
entire acquiescence. And with these reassuring murmurs, the lady retired
after telling her thanks, and the gathering withdrew down the street.
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Leaicraft and Thompson continued their way westward. Before them, suddenly,
after a half hour's sauntering, shown an avenue of military splendor.
They were in Charing Cross, having pushed down the strand,
and they were on the south side of Trafalgar Square
and not far from the equestrian statue of Charles. The
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first Trafalgar Square was filled with troops. The effect of
color was transporting. The masked regiments of infantry were broken
by parks of artillery, while immediately under Nelson's column the
nineteen Hussers, the Dumpies of seventeen fifty nine, the fifteenth Hussers,
Eliot's Light Horse, the sixteenth Lancers, the Queen's and the
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thirteenth Hussers. The Ragged Brigade were confusedly stationed, their mingling
busbies and dependent bags, looking like a garden patch. From
point to point issued galloping vedets, carrying their pennants on
lanceheads affixed to the stirrups, which undulated in the air
as the horses pranced and carrucauled. The tramp of troops,
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the sighing of bugles, and the resounding surges of music
surrounded them. It was afternoon, the beginning of the first
day's procession from the abbey, doubtless was at hand. The
stirring air communicated the thrills of an immense event, and
the people petrified into attention, stood crushed against each other
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in rows of forlorn expectancy. The suffocating excitement was unbearable,
the more so because of its immobility. Leocraft decided to
rush through London and reach Victoria Park, the Hackney, Marshes
and Clapton in order to determine the attitude the action
of the poorer classes. Thomsen was unwilling to desert the
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fermenting throngs around traf Vulgar Square or miss for a
moment the kaleidoscope of changing soldiery, and so Leocraft leaving
him entered a handsome and shot off. He was not
averse to this solitude. His affections for Miss Tobitt had
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lately warmed into a less indifferent kindliness, and he began
to feel a gnawing anxiety lest the pretty scotchwoman thought
less of him in the way lovers like than she
did of her cousin, the handsome and obnoxiously unconcerned Thomson.
Thomson knew exactly Loocraft's feelings and regarded them with unconcealed forbearance, and,
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what was more provoking, with a frank condescension of sympathy.
And yet the men had become good friends. They had
talked long and seriously, with all the elements of critical
guidance they could summon about the strange reversal or revolution
in the nation's affairs. But at these moments they were
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in an impersonal frame of contact, and the personal exigencies
which later crept between them were all absent. Aircraft's intellectual
weight easily made itself felt in these discussions, and Thompson,
with cordial alacrity, assumed the obedient position of audience and pupil.
(31:28):
End of Chapter eight, Part one
Chapter eight, Part one of the Evacuation of England by L. P. Gratacap.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Events were
moving rapidly ever since the Parliament, by a legislative decree,
had authorized the desertion of England, and the eventful day
(00:20):
approached when the King and his household, the Parliament itself,
and the Church and the titled Estates should in a
formal and expressive manner leave England's shores. The mass of
the population had been diligently hunting about for refuge and occupation.
Steamers and ships had scattered in all directions. The fleeing multitudes.
(00:45):
Relatives abroad, friends and even acquaintances offered homes and employment.
No utility now was too small to be considered, nor
any designation too insignificant to merit attention. This scamper ring
was largely among those who felt the pinch already of
idleness and the diminishing chance of work among operatives and workmen.
(01:09):
Clerks and the breadwinners of the middle class. The nobleman
and the pauper did not stir. The English nation had
decreed through its legislature that the evacuation of the country
should be conducted with pageantry, that the solemn parting should
be enrolled in all time honored ceremony and stately pomp
(01:32):
with which kings had been crowned, and for which, with
all its heart and mind the English nature cries out
with unappeasable hunger. So the moment for the King's departure,
which meant the official desertion of the old home, might
justly be compared to the flight of the Queen Bee
in the Bee Colony, when her faithful followers swarm after
(01:56):
and upon her, and with resolute constancy create a new
city about her inviolable person. The King was to leave
England in June nineteen ten. And when he left, with
sumptuous and melancholy observance, with splendor of color and depth
and power of music, with uniform and ritual, with prayer
(02:19):
and chorus and prophecy, with august and intolerable grandeur, with
the art of tradition and the ornaments of invention, he
was to pass down to Tilbury and sail away beyond
Grave's End, to the new realm of his possession on
the shores of Australia. It was a pretty hard thing
to believe It was a harder thing to do, but
(02:43):
it was to be done with all the gorgeous effectiveness
which accumulated traditions of centuries and the practice of every day,
and the mere resources in artifices and equipment of a
magnificent realm could display. The day came with splendid beauty.
The sun shone over in England, which somewhat returned to
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the flowery loveliness of its old and sweet estate. The
city had been cleared, though the snowfalls had reached the
most unexpected depth, and the severity of the winter had
been appalling. The meteorologists discovered the fact that the western
and northwestern zones of extreme precipitation those of eighty inches,
(03:26):
had moved inward and had even exceeded this maximum, and
the condition of the country was really extraordinary and desperate.
The immense accumulations of snow in the outlying districts had
risen to such heights that the low long houses of
the peasantry were covered, and the aspect of the country
was that of a Labrador landscape transplanted to southern latitudes,
(03:51):
where trees, stone walls and villages assumed the place of
the more familiar tundra plains and stone floored plans. Suffering
had been very general, and the importunity of nature had
done more to convince the people that the necessity of
removal was an actual threat, not to be avoided or placated,
(04:14):
than the speeches, the tracts of the scientific societies, or
the deliberations of statesmen and editors. But in London on
this twelfth of June, though the air bore the strange
traces of the changed climate in its tingling sharpness, yet
this exhilaration only served the purpose of adding swiftness to
(04:35):
the movement of the hosts of people in the streets,
and a new and wonderful tremor of excitement to their
eagerness in awaiting the development of the day's great preparations.
In the morning, the king was to be enthroned in
Westminster Abbey and to receive the homage of the peers, and,
as usual at a coronation, the day itself was inaugurated
(04:58):
with the firing of a royal salute at sunrise, a
measure of the august and overpowering rights and observances that
mark the assumption of a king's rule was now to
be gone through with as a symbol and memento before
the king transferred his throne to another land, and this
ceremonial was emblematic of the unbroken allegiance of the English
(05:22):
nation to his removed majesty. The King was to ascend
the theater of the abbey and be lifted into his
throne by the archbishops and bishops and other peers of
the Kingdom, and being enthronized or placed therein. All the
great officers, those that bear the swords and scepters, and
(05:45):
the rest of the nobles should stand round about the
steps of the throne, and the archbishops standing before the King,
should say the exhortation, beginning with the words stand firm
and hold fast from henceforth the seat of state, of
royal and imperial dignity, which is this day delivered unto
(06:07):
you in the name and by the authority of Almighty God,
and by the hands of us the bishops and servants
of God, though unworthy, et cetera, et cetera. And then
the homage being offered and accepted, the King attended and
accompanied the four swords, being the sword of Mercy, the
sword of Justice, to the spirituality, the sort of Justice
(06:29):
to the temporality, and the sword of State were to
be carried before him. He should then descend from his throne,
crowned and carrying his scepter and rod in his hands,
should go into the area eastward of the theater and
pass on through the door on the south side of
the altar into King Edward's chapel, the organ and other instruments,
(06:52):
all the while playing. The King should, then, standing before
the altar, deliver the scepter with the dove to the
archbishops ship, who would lay it upon the altar. There,
the King would then be disrobed of his imperial mantle
and be arrayed in his royal robe of purple velvet
by the Lord Great Chamberlain. The archbishop should then place
(07:14):
the orb in his Majesty's left hand. Then his Majesty
should proceed through the choir to the west door of
the abbey in the same manner as he came, wearing
his crown and bearing in his right hand the scepter
with the cross and in his left the orb, all
peers wearing their coronets, and the archbishops and bishops their caps.
(07:40):
The interior arrangements in the abbey were familiar from the
west door, where the procession should enter, to the screen
which divides choir from nave. Two rows of galleries were
to be erected on each side of the center aisle,
the one gallery level with the vaultings, the other with
the summit of the western door. These galleries should have
(08:04):
their fronts fluted with crimson cloth, richly draped at the
top and decorated with broad gold fringe of the bottom.
On the floor of the center aisle, slightly raised platform
or carpeted ways should be laid down along which the
King and Queen in procession should pass to the choir.
This was to be matted over and covered with crimson claw.
(08:27):
On the pavement of the isle. Bordering this carpeted way
should stand the soldiery as a fence against interference. The
theater where the principal parts of the ceremony were to
be enacted, lies immediately under the central tower of the abbey,
and was a square formed by the intersection of the
choir and the transepts, extending nearly the whole breadth of
(08:50):
the choir. On this square, a platform was to be erected,
ascended by five steps. The summit of this platform, and
also the highest step leaf eating to it, was to
be covered with the richest cloth of gold. From that
step down to the flooring of the theater, all was
covered with carpet of rich red or purple color, bordered
(09:12):
with gold. In the center of the theater, the sumptuously
draped chair was to be placed for the Sovereign, in
which he receives the homage of the peers. This interior
pomp and splendor escaped the observation of Laocraft. Though he
was not unfamiliar with the details of the solemn pageant,
(09:33):
but now it hardly interested him. His mind, by a
natural emancipation from the thrall of such spectacles, dwelt rather
on the attitude of the people in this extreme peril
and solicitude. He felt inquisitive to learn their feelings, their hopes,
their cohesiveness in the changed estate. Were they likely to
(09:56):
resolve into a chaos of preferences with only the cry
of Sovkipo in their mouths? Or would they follow the
new destinies and preserve the nation? At length? The populace
were coming into their own. It was pretty evident that
a king and queen and regalia, and peers and peeresses,
(10:18):
and a much surpliced clergy, would not make a nation
without the workers, the rent payers, the men of action,
the breadwinners, the clerks, artisans and merchants, the householder and
his family, And that the sacred classes would be suddenly
subjected to a reductio ad absurdom if they formed the
only inhabitants of the new regime, and their titles lost
(10:42):
their raison debt. With the disappearance of the untitled mass.
After the rendering of the homage at the abbey, the
procession was to take place, and the King, arriving at Chilbury,
with the royal family, a selection of the peers, the
highest episcopal prelates, and certain representative men from the Commons,
(11:03):
including the Ministry, would be received on the dreadnought and
with a glorious escort of the largest battleships, carrying the
royal equipage, the furniture of Windsor Castle and of Saint
James's Palace and of the Buckingham Mansion, the archives of
the Parliament at least a portion steam away from England
to Australia to Melbourne. This nucleus of government holding the
(11:28):
inseparable insignia and the actual essence of the English nation
would there with pomp and solemn allegations, with rolling music
and pious prayers, with thunders of the guns by the
navy and the salute of the army be as it
were reinstalled. But the route of the procession was not
(11:49):
to be straight out of London. It comprised a broader purpose.
It was proposed to circumvallate London, to impregnate it with
the sentiment of the King's lya. It should be traversed
and penetrated in all directions, gathering thus the public allegiance
and absorbing its loyalty, shedding the effulgence of the royal
(12:10):
splendor upon the populace, and in chaining them anew to
the principal and fact of English sovereignty. It was a
stupendous project. It involved stations and relays. Camps of the
military were to be established at Saint James Park, at
Victoria Park, at Regent's Park, at the West End, near Paddington,
(12:30):
at Wormwood Scrubs, and in the southern districts around Clapham
Common and towards Putney. The King was to stop at
resting places, and in the largest local churches, a reduced
form of the homage was to be instituted, involving the enthronization,
with the displays of the regalia, and the jubilation and
(12:53):
the reverence of the people expressed as always in the
shouts God Save King, Long Live King Edward, made the
King live forever. The bells of the churches were to ring,
the houses were to hang out their banners. Flags were
to cover the streets. Bands stationed on prominent balconies at
(13:15):
points covering the entire long journey through and around the
city were to play national airs, that so there might
be generated an overwhelming enthusiasm, a tumult of devotion, and
thus constrained the Englishmen afresh in the religion of the
nation's immortality. It was finally conceived, this elevation of the King.
(13:38):
It was gorgeously executed. The imagination of the people was
tremendously impressed, and the ark of the covenant of the
internal supremacy of the English crown seemed thus visibly incorporated
and presented to them. The procession was glittering, and it
was majestic. It ponderously emphasized the English idea There were
(13:59):
really two processions, the first from Westminster to Buckingham Palace,
the second through London. In the first, the King issued
from Westminster, his crown born before him, but holding in
his right hand the scepter with the cross and in
his left the orb. Then began the most wonderful state
(14:20):
ride through London, the superb chariot of the King, surrounded
by heralds, kings and arms. Pursuvance with judges, councilors, lords
and dignitaries was followed by the open carriages of the nobility.
The king was immersed in color garter. Principal King at
Arms was a miracle of dress. He wore a frock
(14:43):
or tabard, crimson and golden blazoned with the quarters of
the United Kingdom. Then there was the Clarencia of the
South and Norroy of the North, and the heralds of Lancaster, Somerset, Richmond,
all wonderfully bedight, and the perceuvante rouge, croix, rouge, dragon,
portcullis and blue mantle, looking like the genie of a
(15:07):
Christmas pantomime. And here with the King were the Lord Chamberlain,
the Lord Steward, and the Master of the house, and
there followed this cavalcade, surrounding the king like a many
colored fringe. The carriages of the nobles, wherein all the
signs of degree order rank were sumptuously shown. Here the
(15:29):
robes of the peers crimson velvet edged with minever the
capes furred with the same, and powdered with bars or
rows of ermine, according to degree, rolled together in a
bank of oscillating glory. Beneath the mantles, a court dress,
a uniform, or regimentals were decried. The coronets were even worn,
(15:53):
and as the scintillating groups passed, eager admirers separated the
coronet of the baron with its six silver equidistant balls,
from the coronet of a viscount with sixteen, from the
coronet of an earl, with eight balls raised on points
and with glistening gold strawberry leaves between the points, from
(16:14):
the coronet of a marquis with four gold strawberry leaves
alternating with four silver balls, and from the coronet of
a duke with the eight gold strawberry leaves. Nor did
beauty hesitate to add its witchery to the sports of splendor,
and in behalf of that ancient idea of monarchy, which
(16:35):
now was enlisted against a deep peril of mistrust and repudiation.
The pyrrises formed part of the procession, their scarlet kirtles
over the petticos of white satin and lace, their flowing
sleeves slashed and furred, Their cushioned trains, heaped in confusion
in the carriages, and relieved by shining plaques of silver silk,
(16:58):
were still more bewilderingly graced by jewelry, by oceans of gems,
resplendently transfigured in the blazing sun. In this momentous pageant,
the limits of the spectacular were invaded, even distended, in
which some saw not only a lack of good taste,
(17:20):
but the pressure of a little fear. Even the church
advanced the bold bid for admiration and wonder. It sent
out its archbishops, bishops, rectors, cannons, prebendaries, and deacons to
compose parts of the vast exhibit to be interwoven in
(17:40):
the variegated human carpet that filled the streets. Before the
churches that were passed, choirs gathered and sang melodiously. The
strong religious fiber of the englishmen and women was sedulously
appealed to or else. It was the elemental flaming forward
of their powerful conviction. At this strange moment, there was
(18:02):
less of pretense and trick than sincerity. The heart of
the people was steadfastly united with the old traditions. They
clung unbrokenly to the inheritance of English greatness. There was
no reason to doubt their faith. The route of the
second Marveloust procession was from the Abbey through Birdcage Walk
(18:23):
past Victoria Monument to Procession Road to the Strand to
Fleet Street, over Ludgate Hill, past Saint Paul's to Cheapside
to Bishop Street to Shoreditch to Hackney Street and so
out of Victoria Park and Homerton back again to Highbury
Fields south by Essex Road to Pentonville Road to Euston
(18:47):
Road to Marylebone Road, through Regent's Park, through Hampstead Road
to Hampstead to Westside, through Edgewood Road to High Park
and the Bayswater to Holland Park to Hammersmith Road by
Hammersmith Bridge Road to Castle Now, thence to Putney to
Battersea to Clapham to Camberwell, thence to Walworth Road, by
(19:11):
London Road, by Waterloo Road to Westminster Bridge to the
Houses of Parliament, and on the banks of the River
Thames to the Tower, and on through Whitechapel, Mileland Road,
Bow Road to Bromley, to Stratford, to Barking to Tilbury.
Nothing so prodigious had ever been conceived, and the resources
(19:34):
of the Empire, of the military, and the squadrons of
the colonists, who should again, as at the jubilee of
Queen Victoria present, the diversified elements of English power would
be involved at Tilbury on the Essence Bank, opposite Gravesend,
where rise the low bastions of Tilbury Fort, originally constructed
(19:56):
by Henry the third King. Edward the seventh would in
a fashion diverse and with a different end in view,
also declare that he had the heart and stomach of
a king, and of a king of England too, as
had said Queen Elizabeth, but now it should be said
(20:17):
by a king unappalled by the invasion of the powers
of the Air, as she was before the power of Spain,
but now said with undiminished confidence and high hope, though
said too with obedience to the supreme mandate of expulsion
before it took place. Leacraft and Thomson began their long
walk from Ludgate Hill, and Leacraft intently watched the street crowds.
(20:43):
He noted also with recording interest, the groups in the
balconies with lunch baskets. The expectant air everywhere was not
unnoticeably mingled with a kind of frightened silence. There was
not much noise, no indiscriminate hubbub in the street, and
where groups were encountered hurrying to their destination, they were
(21:05):
quiet and restrained. Tension was evident, a high strung expectancy
verging with impalpable approach upon tears and the agony of
penitential promises. The fundamentally religious optimism of the Englishman was confounded,
and his acceptance of invisible guidance made itself seen in
(21:26):
faces desolated by the grief of tears. The preparations were
remarkable and elaborate. The windows were filled with chairs, platforms
were erected almost luxuriously, draped with red cloth and scarlet velvet,
and surging crowds in spots seemed to belie the significance
(21:47):
of the portentous moment. From time to time As the
two observers walked in the middle of the street, they
stopped reluctantly to notice signs of mourning. These took on
the flom of trailing streamers of crape hung upon white cloth,
and their singularity, amid the almost mombastic surplusage of scarlet dressings,
(22:10):
awoke protest and resentment. At one point, there was a
particularly conspicuous, dismal challenge to the susceptibilities of the spectators
in a balcony loaded with somber trappings, which gained a
startling prominence because of the patriotic and cheerful decorations on
either side of it. Before this lugubrious appeal, a small
(22:33):
group of malcontents had gathered and were indulging in incendiary criticism.
It's no use turning a sour face to the thing.
What's got to be is got to be, And a
little heart will keep a sour stomach from making itself sick.
I say, we're a haul in the same boat, and
(22:53):
cheerfulness makes pleasant company. Such a show as that hot
not to be tolerated. I say this belligerency came from
the thick lips of a red faced man who had
his coat over his arm, and whose leathern leggings codo
or knee breeches, and flaming waistcoat with a high collar
(23:14):
strapped to his muscular neck by a pea green scarf.
Betokened a representative of the fancy or an ostler turned
out for a day's holiday. Indeed, I think so, squealed
a thin, short man with a red nose and a
curious habit of wiping his mouth with a yellow handkerchief.
It's hard enough for the suffering masses to leave hearth home,
(23:37):
and I may say family not to be saddened more
than is natural with these funereal suggestions, well shouted a
sturdy arrival on the other limbit of the circle. Let's
tear them down. The quickest way to cure trouble is
to get rid of it. It's rotten in Sultan to
stick those weeds under our noses. Under the influence us
(24:00):
of these defiant words, the knot of men moved towards
the objectionable drapery with evidently unfriendly intentions. But they had
not been unobserved from the inside of the house on
whose front these sad reminders hung. A window shot up
and a tall, slender woman advanced to the edge of
(24:21):
the balcony. She was dressed deeply in black. Her neck
was surrounded by some white crape stuff, and the sentiment,
as Howells has it, of her dress, was a pathetic
suggestion of bereavement and misfortune. Her hair, yet luxuriant, was
plentifully sprinkled with gray. Her face had the authorized look
(24:44):
of nobility and distinction. She was yet prepossessing, though the
crowding years had brought her past middle life. The distinctive
impressions she made upon Leocraft as he and Thompson, somewhat
withdrawn watched, the deneuement of this street episode was that
of abiding sorrow, patiently born, and doubtless united in her
(25:07):
with Christian resignation and unsullied piety. A beautiful picture of
the englishwoman who resolutely lives her earnest life of prayer
and self sacrifice, holding intensely to her heart some fond
memory wreathed in Amaranth and Laacraft as an Englishman blessed providence,
(25:28):
there were such. The men on the street were a
little abashed by the pale face and lofty mien of
the lady who had recognized their purpose, and placed herself
there to thwart it. She came forward and instantly spoke.
Her voice was excessively clear, but an underlying mellowness imparted
an extreme sweetness to its tones. My friends, you wish
(25:53):
these mourning signs taken away. They offend you. But when
you know that they expressed to me the approaching loss
of all my friends, you will not. I think feels
so harshly about them. The King in a week leaves
the shores of England. The evacuation of England begins today,
(26:14):
and with the king goes the great English nation. And
this wonderful city, with all its memories, with its beauty,
its historic power, its incessant interests, our common home for
all our lifetimes, will dwindle and dwindle and disappear, lost
in arctic snows, in ice, at least, so they tell us.
(26:37):
But I shall stay in this house. Suffering has come
to me, it has never left me. I shall not
leave it. I mourn for those who, in going away,
die to English pride, to English love, to English devotion.
And she leaned out over the sullen men beneath her,
and die to me. These black films are for them.
(27:03):
She stopped. The men, worried and puzzled in surprise, looked
a little sheepishly at each other. Oh well, said he
of the hostler type. My lady, no offense. Seeing how
you feel about it, I say, have your way. Yes, yes,
squealed the breacher. If the empty badges of mourning give anyone,
(27:24):
anyone satisfaction, why it's not in reason to question their
motives in this excruciating moment, Gad the lady's right, shouted
the former belligerent, whose prompt hint had at first neatly
precipitated the riot. She's got the right ring, and I'm
damned if anyone titches the rags there, I'll bust his
(27:45):
cock eyed head off his shoulders. This vociferous statement produced
a hubbub of approval and won many distinct admissions of
entire acquiescence. And with these reassuring murmurs, the lady retired
after telling her thanks, and the gathering withdrew down the street.
(28:05):
Leaicraft and Thompson continued their way westward. Before them, suddenly,
after a half hour's sauntering, shown an avenue of military splendor.
They were in Charing Cross, having pushed down the strand,
and they were on the south side of Trafalgar Square
and not far from the equestrian statue of Charles. The
(28:26):
first Trafalgar Square was filled with troops. The effect of
color was transporting. The masked regiments of infantry were broken
by parks of artillery, while immediately under Nelson's column the
nineteen Hussers, the Dumpies of seventeen fifty nine, the fifteenth Hussers,
Eliot's Light Horse, the sixteenth Lancers, the Queen's and the
(28:50):
thirteenth Hussers. The Ragged Brigade were confusedly stationed, their mingling
busbies and dependent bags, looking like a garden patch. From
point to point issued galloping vedets, carrying their pennants on
lanceheads affixed to the stirrups, which undulated in the air
as the horses pranced and carrucauled. The tramp of troops,
(29:13):
the sighing of bugles, and the resounding surges of music
surrounded them. It was afternoon, the beginning of the first
day's procession from the abbey, doubtless was at hand. The
stirring air communicated the thrills of an immense event, and
the people petrified into attention, stood crushed against each other
(29:35):
in rows of forlorn expectancy. The suffocating excitement was unbearable,
the more so because of its immobility. Leocraft decided to
rush through London and reach Victoria Park, the Hackney, Marshes
and Clapton in order to determine the attitude the action
of the poorer classes. Thomsen was unwilling to desert the
(29:57):
fermenting throngs around traf Vulgar Square or miss for a
moment the kaleidoscope of changing soldiery, and so Leocraft leaving
him entered a handsome and shot off. He was not
averse to this solitude. His affections for Miss Tobitt had
(30:17):
lately warmed into a less indifferent kindliness, and he began
to feel a gnawing anxiety lest the pretty scotchwoman thought
less of him in the way lovers like than she
did of her cousin, the handsome and obnoxiously unconcerned Thomson.
Thomson knew exactly Loocraft's feelings and regarded them with unconcealed forbearance, and,
(30:43):
what was more provoking, with a frank condescension of sympathy.
And yet the men had become good friends. They had
talked long and seriously, with all the elements of critical
guidance they could summon about the strange reversal or revolution
in the nation's affairs. But at these moments they were
(31:05):
in an impersonal frame of contact, and the personal exigencies
which later crept between them were all absent. Aircraft's intellectual
weight easily made itself felt in these discussions, and Thompson,
with cordial alacrity, assumed the obedient position of audience and pupil.
(31:28):
End of Chapter eight, Part one
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