The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-02 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.

For some dap before the ever4o-be-rememberekt 27th of

February there were two sub-topics, if we may use the
tire+, which were everywhere discussed. 2'lie topic was

the Queen's visit to St. Paul's the two sub-topics were the
weather and the presence or absence of the Prince of Wales.
Anything more wtetched or dreary than the weather in
. . _

Lontion_&triug the greater part of tile two or three days pre.

ceding the eagerly le.oked for day we seldom have in the metro-
polis. Mud and slosh, whatever that may be—it is just as

eily imagined as described, were it worth whils—rela and

demote, were the unpleasant f eatures of the time, and the inter-
mittent gleams of sunshine rather raised hope than Inspired
confidence. Monday night was stormy and wet, but the
weather-wise appear to have taken heart of hope from this
circumstance, and to have consoled themselves with the
sagacious reflection that ram that had come down would
not have to come down, and that after a blustrous and
wretchedly wet night, Jimiter Pluvins might rebut, and Sol
might shine out resplendently. And then there is through-
out England. and London is no exception, a firm faith In
Queen's weather. Such remarks as "Oh, it will be sure to
be fine; we shall have Queen's weather," are common on the.
rare occasions when her Majesty is expected to be the promi-
nent and central figure in some out-door celebration. And
sure enough, Tuesday morning broke brightly and calmly ;
the north-easterly wind was keen and cold; but then the
sun shone—somewhat fitfully, It is true but still he made
,

_
his agreeable presenee visible—and this at once excited hope
and gladness, and gave bright promise of the Queen
weather that so many had anticipated. The other sub-topic
—the important question whether the Prince of Wales would
be present at or absent from the Royal procession—was
everywhere eagerly discussed; but we must not anticipate.

THE STREETS AND RAILWAY STATIONS.
On Saturday and Monday hundreds of thousands of
provincial friends had arrived in our monster city. Hotels
and lodging.houses were for the nonce largely in demand
country cousins claimed the hospitality of London cousins;
and all was excitement and expectation. We are afraid
there must have been a large exceptional amount of work
done on the Sunday, so backward had previously been many
of the preparations, but it is only fair to add that dur-
ing a long perambulation of certain leading thorough-
fares we saw no proof of any extra Sunday work. But un-
doubtedly there had been an immense amount of hard work
In the metropolis, day and night, in preparation for Tuesday.
Along Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, and the Strand; in Pall
Mall and Hyde Park; throughout that really splendid line
of roadway front the Viaduct to the Marble Arch, the
preparations for decorating and illuminating, and above all
for witnessing the procession. had been fast and furious.
What acres upon acres of crimson cloth ! What forests of
timber for Venetian masts, improvised seats, and covered
structures ' What a vast amount of silk mid bunting !
What painting and furbishing up ! Audthen what agreeable
champagne lunches had to be provided for ! For best known
to all whom it may concern that all London tradesmen are
slot mercenary. Many of them could have let out shops
and windows for hard cash to an agreeable amount,
but instead of this, they offered their '• coign of 'van-
tage "to customers and friends. Malicious-minded people
may unpleasantly hint that these tradesmen may have had
an eye to business in thus acting but we decline to
believe it; we rather like to have faith in the liberality and
kindliness of many of the great middle-class, even in the
metropolis of "a nation of shopkeepess." But it was at
any rate certain that an enormous number of seats had
been allotted, for pecuniary or friendly considerations, and
the problem eagerly discussed on Monday night and Tues-
day morning was—how to get at them. The official police
regulations as to the traffic in the streets had clearly proved
to any who may have had any doubt on the subject that,
early departure from home and arrival at one's destination
were absolutely necessary. The bright, cheery, hopeful
weather of the morning, added to this necessity, must have
created in tens of thousands of houses that deliciously and yet
tantalisingly exciting feeling called flustration, helter-
skelter, or hurry-skurry. To be "up in the morning early ; "
to make arrangements for the inner man at breakfast time,
and perhaps for portable provisions throughout the day; to
make for train or enmities, or to call scab if one were to be
had—such were some of the cares preceding the day's outing.
And there were many of the poorer classes, though none the
less loyal for that, who hail few arrangements to make; who
stood not on the order of their going, but went at once, wend-
ing their way from 13ethnal Oreen and Whitechapel, from
Hackney and Shoreditch, and from the "towns" which
go to make sip our mighty metropolis; and who, in hopes
of seeing and cheering their Queen and her children,
actually located themselves in favourable positions on the
pavement as early as seven o'clock in the morning
Was it purely the love of sight-seeing, or a loyal feeling, that
dictated this hard work for pleasure' sake? Perhaps a little of
both; and certainly our good Queen had as ample cause to
be gratified at the manifestation of the loyalty of the poor, and
the cheering of n-hat some superciliously call the mob, as at
that of the higher classes. The lusty lungs of the crowds
that lined the roadways sent up cheers that " made the
welkin ring ;" the densely-packed throngs of people who had
been standing patiently for hours, waved caps aril hand-
kerchiefs, and shouted, and hoorrayed with all their hearts;
and tins must have been quite as gratifying to her Mujesty
and her family as having opera-glasses levelled at them from
tastily decorated windows, kid-gloved hands perforating the
semblance of applause, and pertained 'kerchiefs waved
by ladiesf
But to revert to the efforts to see the Royal proces-
sion : they must have been various, multifarious, pre-
carious, and hilarious. Everyhody at every tune after live
or six in the morning seems either to have been going or
helping somebody else to go. The railway stations were
thronged, and the carriages were besieged inite irrespective
of the class that had been paid for; and all the morning the
termini at Ludgate-hill, Victoria, London-bridge dm, were
all alive with excited and exciting throngs of people arriving
from innumerable points, but almost all "on pleasure bent"
in one particular direction. As to omnibuses they ran to
the points of attraction during so short slime that they were
rushed at as though a frantic crowd intended to upset them
for bariicailes, while cabmen, knowing that their harvest-
time would be very short, insisted on fancy prices, and
generallyobtained them. When each arriving train disgorges
Some hundreds of passengers, when velucli s of all sorts
bring numbers of people as near as possible to the chief
points of attraction, and when thousands of pedestrians
press forward to the same locality, no wonder that the
coveted thoroughfares soon till up, and as early as time
o'clock the streets we have already mentioned became densely
thronged, and the cry is still "they come" There were in the
streets "all sorts (Uhl conditions of men," and women, and
children; but our impression is that the crowd was, during
the earlier part id the day at least, better dressed and
more orderly than we have observed on many occasions of
great masses of people irsembling in the streets. And
there could be no mistake about one thing—it was a
general holiday, in the city and along the two niain arteries
of traffic at all events, and indeed it could not be otherwise,
and throughout Loudon on Tilesilay there was very little
business done but the business of pleasure. 134 siltln
pleasure there was a great deal of disappointmeot. People
who had with painstaking and energy succeeded in getting
somewhere near a grand route, found streets and lanes
blocked and further progress barred by stern and inexorable
policemen, stolid as statues, and just as firm. They found that
they could not get anywhere near the line of route, and a few
flags from the windo ,vis and the waving plumes of the
Life Guards in the distance, together with a crowd of
people, who, also, could see nothing particular, was all
that could be seen. But in the by-streets there
was an occasional exhildtion to relieve the mo-
notony of banging about and seeing nothing—
exhibitions which were not down in the programme. Here
might be seen a gorgeously appointed carriage, with splendid
trappings, high-class horses, and everything befitting a
sheriff or an alderman ; but the carriage was drawn up
against a "pub," and the pampered menials—we beg pardon,
the gorgeous flunkeys, were there and then Minoring up.
Your civic coachman evidently likes a drop of good beer, and
' he will not forego his luxury eves when seated in state on
his box. And Neatly gorgeous footmen many be seen entering
or leaving public-houses, doing their surreptitious lunch ;
while, strangest sight of all, an unusually gorgeous civic
Jelin, while seated in his post of honour smokes a
short clay, and blows therefrom clouds of fragrant
smoke. It bobs very, very odd, and does not harmonise
with what Carlyle calls " the eternal fitness of things
but then it pleases the pampered menial in gorgeous
array and hurts no one else, and so those who can see nothing
better must be thankful for small mercies. It Is not pleasant
to know and feel that there is so much disappointment, and
that on the outskirts of the densely-packed linen of sight-
seers there are perhaps`post as many who can see nothing but
nobody is to blame, and the "outside barbarians," truth to
say, take their disappointment very good-humouredly.
THE TWO MAIN ROUTES.

Let us take a rapid glance—literally a passing glance—
at the two main arteries, the grand thoroughfares through
which the Royal procession passed on its j turney to and
departure from the metropolitan Cathedral, as it has been
generally called, though, strictly speaking, Canterbury
Cathedral commands that appellation. Let us commence at
Pall Mall, or Clubland, as it has been called. The sombre
and quiet clubs that chiefly characterise this aristocratic
street are all changed from their accustomed aspects.
These patrician establishments were literally turned inside
out. Balconies had been decorated and propped up to
bear their unwonted load; temporary balconies had been
made, windows expanded and developed pro tem., and the
whole front of those clubs beautifully decorated and
made available for throngs of sight-seers, among whom
the fair sex were certainly not forgotten. At Water-
loo-place, at the Duke of York's Column, and at Tra-
falganstmare good opportunities of splendid effects were
missed, but independent decorations nevertheless made
the locality look lively, while the absence of deco-
ration at Northumberland House occupying so pro-
minent a position as it does—was the subject of general
remark. Along the Strand, which Mr. Disraeli once spoke of
as the most picturesque street in London (which is not saying
munch!, the decorations had a very happy effect. The
Venetian masts with their waving streamers ; the gaily
decorated windows ; the flags, banners, and festoons ; the
flowers and the bright colouring everywhere—all this, lighted
up by the warm beams of the sun and the happy faces of the
thousands who thronged windows and balconies, was a
pleasant eight to witness. Temple Bar had undergone a
thorough transmogrification. It was an old friend with a
new face and nobody could have recognised in the gilded
and decorated triumphal arch of Tuesday last the grins old
gateway antler which tides of passengers slowly flow daily
without paying much heed to the usually ugly impediment
to traffic. And Fleet-street looked really beautiful. "Sir,"
sail Dr. Johnson, "he that has seen one green field has seen
all green fields ; I like to study human nature; lotus take a
walk down Fleet-street," Could thelearned lexicographer have
revisited his familiar haunts, and have walked froth Temple
Bar to the other triumphal arch at Ludgate-hill, in what
"worsts of learned length and thundering sound," would he
have described the scene. In this famous street Use orna-
mentation was really rich anti beautiful, the decoration
tasty and regardless of expense, and the entire effect
unsurpassed by any part of London. The triumphal arch,
improvised for the occasion at an expense of £4,000,
was handsomely onsamented, and, seen from any point,
was a beautiful structure. Looking at it from the
west the effect was very good. The London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway people might have been somewhat
chagrined that the bridge, which they had painted and
ornamented for the nonce, was obscured, but to other
people this was an advantage, for the view- of the triumphal
arch, with the glorims dome of Sr' Paul's towering above
it, formed a grand sight, such as Loudon crowds never
saw before, and may be long before tiny see again. And
Ludgate Ea too, was all flags and bunting, Vene-
tian masts and streamers, crimson cloth, flowers, and
ornamentation. Fancy pribes had been given for windows
and seats in this desirable thoroughfare, but many of the
merchant tradesmen of Ludgate-hill, with commendable taste
and liberality, declined to do this, and threw open their
houses to friends. Mr Benson, the well. known jeweller, for
example, had his house fitted up with all the elegance of
stalls at the Opera, and the favoured occupants of this estab-
lishment must have been the envy of many who would have
been glad of even a "standing seat" below. And the grand
line of route from the Viaduct to Hyde Park was also pay
with decorations, thronged with eager sight-seers, and on the
whole presented • lively and animated scene worthy of the
Importance of this fine roadway, anti of the occasion when
preat part of London was truly en pls.

Govern-