“It rained on Coronation Day in 1953, but nothing like so badly as at the previous coronation in 1937 when it came down like the best of British stair-rods just after the ceremonies in the Abbey had ended and when people were trying to get home.
You may be aware there will be an election in the United States in November. It’s a mugs‘ game predicting elections, except in Belarus. But Ned York, who forecast an H Clinton win four years ago and was sent to the dog house, has a thoughtful take on this year’s tussle.
If you looked in my wallet thirty years ago you would have found lists. PG Wodehouses and Pevsners, Lloyd’s syndicates and books by other authors – perhaps Dornford Yates and Leslie Charteris – a compulsion inherited from Uncle George.
Yesterday, at the Savile Club, I asked Michael Bloch about the Dukes of Windsor and Sussex. His insights are too interesting to keep to myself and I prevailed upon him to write today’s post; thank you Michael.
“At the coronation of King George VI there had been a moment of hesitation at a very important point in the ceremonies which could have been embarrassing but for the presence of mind of the then Archbishop of Canterbury (Cosmo Gordon Lang).
“I think it was Sir Walter Scott who wrote the lines, ‘One flooded hour of glorious life, Is worth an age without a name’*, and I think I know exactly what he meant. I once felt like that myself, if only for a fleeting moment.
“Although such incidents (the canopy cock-up) during the rehearsals could be treated lightly at the time, they were nevertheless disturbing to “the management” and had to be ironed out lest they be repeated on The Day.