THE MOST IMPRESSIVE 
SIGHT I EVER SAW. 
IV. — Lady Randolph Churchill. 
V— L or d Cheyl esmore. 
VI. — General Sir Neville Lyttelton. 
IV. 
The Ceremony of Q ueen Victorias Jubilee in Westminster Abbey. 
By LADY RANDOLPH CHURCHILL. 
Illustrated from the Painting hy W. E. Lockhart, R.S.A. 
NEVER have seen, and prob- 
ably never shall see, a more 
imposing sight than the cere- 
mony in Westminster Abbey 
at the celebration of the late 
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, 
which has justly been de- 
scribed as a unique State ceremony in the 
annals of modern England. 
Fortunately, this most memorable of 
memorable days was blessed with the pro- 
verbial “ Queen’s weather.” Rarely have 1 
seen London look so festive — blue sky and 
bright sunshine, flags everywhere, and an 
excited , yet patient, crowd filling the thorough- 
fares and the route of the procession from 
Buckingham Palace to the Abbey. In the 
procession were the greater number of Her 
Majesty’s foreign guests, including four kings 
and several Crown princes, who, in closed 
carriages, went on in advance before Her 
Majesty’s procession of open carriages set out. 
Never, I believe, can Westminster Abbey 
have held such a notable collection of dis- 
tinguished representatives of diverse foreign 
states and nations. I well remember as I 
entered the grand old Abbey remarking how 
altered in appearance it was. Right up into 
the ceiling, covering some of the windows 
and reaching to the lower edge of even the 
higher ones, ran the galleries with their 
benches covered and their fronts decorated in 
festoons with cloth of a deep, rich red, the 
colour of the Order of the Bath. 
By ten o’clock in the morning the Abbey 
was completely filled, every seat in its vast 
galleries having its occupant. 
As the wife of an ex-Cabinet Minister, I was 
given a good place in the Abbey, and as I 
gazed round on the gorgeous uniforms of the 
men and the beautiful dresses of the women 
present the thought crossed my mind that a 
more brilliant spectacle can seldom have 
been seen in the whole history of England. 
Slowly the minutes passed, when, of a 
sudden, there came a breathless hush of 
expectation, and an occult force thrilled 
through the great assembly when it became 
known that the Queen was near at hand. 
The Prince of Wales rose from his seat and 
walked out of the nave into the porch ; the 
Royal trumpeters, in coats of gold embroidery 
and rich red velvet, raised their silver trumpets 
to their lips ; a musical fanfare burst forth, 
and, a few seconds later, when the trumpets 
were silent, the inspiring strains of Han del’s 
march pealed through the old Abbey and, 
amidst this stately blare, the whole congre- 
gation rose at the entry of the Queen and her 
Royal Family, the total number of the 
members of which, including her sons-in-law, 
daughters-in-law, and her grandsons and 
grand-daughters by marriage, amounted to 
forty-three. 
Slowly up the red-carpeted aisle the Royal 
procession advanced, three by three, in the 
same order in which they had ridden in the 
street procession, the Duke of Connaught 
being last, while the central places of the other 
threes in front of the Prince of Wales were 
