The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-03 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S BIRTHDAY.-TROOPING
OF THE COLOURS.

A general parade of the Brigade of Guards took
place last Saturday morning on the Horse Guards
Parade, St. James's Park, in honour of her Majesty's
birthday, and in the presence of a large and distinguished
assemblage. The first regiment to arrive was the
3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards from Welling-
ton Barracks, headed by their fife and drum band.
The 2nd Battalion of the Coldstreams next
came from the Tower with their fine brass band.
The let Battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards then
arrived from Wellington Barracks, and the Ist and 2nd
Battalions of the Grenadiers completed the brigade.
The ground was kept by about 500 men chosen from
all regiments of guards. The windows at the back of
the Horse Guards were draped with scarlet cloth, and
were reserved for member and friends of the Royal
party. At the Admiralty a stand had been erected
and was fully occupied, and at each of the windows of
the Government offices which overlooked the ground
there was a full quota of spectators, and the roofs of
the houses in the distance were seen to be tenanted.
A troop of the Life Guards with the band were also on
guard.
The earliest arrivals of Royal pereonages at the
Horse Guards were the Queen of Hanover and the
Princesses, who drove from Claridge's Hotel, in a
Royal carriage, with Lord Charles Fitzroy (Equerry
to the Queen) in attendance. There were also at the
windows the Duchess of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz with
her children, the Princess Mary (Duchess of Teck),
and the Prince Imperial. A few minutes after ten
o'clock the Princess of Wales, accompanied by the
Royal children, the young princes in sailors' dress,
arrived, and her appearance at the window was the
signal for a general upraising of hats, which
her Royal Highness graciously acknowledged. The
Prince of Wales was absent through slight indis-
position. A Royal salute and, the playing of the
National Anthem by the united bands proclaimed the
arrival of his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief
(who wore the uniform of the Grenadier Guards), and
he was accompanied by the Duke of Connaught (in the
uniform of the 7th Hussars), the Crown Prince Ernest
of Hanover (in a colonel's uniform of the British army,
Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Prince Adolphus of
Mecklenburgh Strelitz (in the Prussian Uhlan uni-
form), the Duke of Teck (as a volunteer artillery
officer) ; Colonels Terret, Marshall, Fraser, and Mac-
donald (aides-de-camp to the Duke of Cambridge),
Captain Fitzgerald (equerry to the Duke of Connaught),
and a brilliant staff, starred and decorated), amongst
them being Major-General Sir Garnet Wolseley.
The Duke of Cambridge first inspected the troops,
who were drawn up in line, both in front and rear,
commencing from the south and returning to the
saluting point in the east centre of the ground, the
band playing Costa's Prince of Wales Procession
March, and the march, God bless the Prince of
Wales." The bands then went to the troop, marching
slow to the left, to the music arranged by D. Godfrey"
of "La Favorita " and "Lucia di L3MITIEMMOOr,
returning at the quick step to the "Sultan of Mocha"
march by Cellier. Just as the bands were taking up
position for escorting the colours, the sun, which had
been obscured behind leaden-coloured clouds, burst
forth and gave a brilliancy to the scene. The
colours were then escorted and trooped to the
" British Grenadiers " and "The Grenadiers' March,"
the troops presenting arms as they were borne
past. The marching past in companies, both in
slow and quick time, then took place, the Grenadiers
leading, the Scots Fusiliers next, followed by the Cold-
streams, "The March in Scipio," "The Garb of Old
Gaul," and the march from " Figaro," being their
accompaniments. They next passed at quick time in
the same order to the tunes of the "British Grena-
diers," "Highland Laddie," and the " Minavolla
March," after which the Duke of Cambridge and suite
left the grounds, the bands again playing "God save
the Queen." When the Princess of Wales and children
took their departure they were heartily cheered. The
Guards were marched to St. James's Palace, where a
selection of musical pieces was played by the combined
bands.

In noticing the above ceremony, the Daily
Tecgraph remarks :
No prettier spectacle in miniature, on the sunny side of
war, lives in the imagination of Londoners than the annual
ceremony of trooping the Queen's colours in Si. James's
Park, on her Majesty's birthday. When a brilliant sun
crosses bayonets with the bearskins on the parade-ground of
the Horse Gua,lis, and when the lines 01 steel flash flame to
flame under a blue sky, it is of course a gayer and more ani-
mating sight than that which the crowd on Saturday
morning came out to see. There was a generally unbar-
nished look about the brightness, as it the crown jewels had
for a while given way to paste. Still, if the iloh•i-noor be
hidden, a model of that splendid lump of carbon, in tolerably
clear glass, may please the eye and stimulate the fancy. It
was a mock Koh-i-noor that feebly glittered in eyes brighter
than gems when the steady tramp, tramp of the household
troops went first in slow and then in quick time past the
crimson draped windows of that military house of business,
the unknown architect of which has taken a leaf out of the
ponderous book of Sir John Vanburgh. There was colour,
toned down a little it may be, but still warm, deep, and
massive, in that scene enacted before the Princess of Wales
and her children, seated at the centre window. Crowded
within the line of sentries beneath, a goodly company moved
with ps.tieLt slowness to and fro. Many who were
there found similar greetings at every turn ; others
met unexpeeedly friends of old time, or companions
in half forgotten travels, pleasantly recalled. It was,
in truth, as it always has been—and, let us hope, will ever
be—a genial gathering. Men of all services, and men who
have beaten the sword into the ploughshare, and sit at
quarter sessions, when they are not busying themselves with
su urea drainage, anal phosphates and the rotation of crops,
shake hands and ask one another. 'Wily, how long is it since
we last met?" and exchange compliments on the little effect
of time, in such language as "You don't look a day older
than when we went to the ball at Drottningholm," or "You
haven't altered a hit since that scrimmage at Tientsin."

A. train on the Northern road rau Into a cow the
the other day. It didn't hurt the cow, but it threw the
engine off the track. People accustomed to the beefsteak
furnished in the boarding-houses of this section express much
surprise at the slight damage done to the train.