AUGUST GRANDEUR OF ABBEY SCENES

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 432, 13 May 1937, Page 5

AUGUST GRANDEUR OF ABBEY SCENES

SOLEMNITY OF THE CORONATION LONDON HERALDIC IN HER SPLENDOUR ft (Press Association—Copyright.) Received May 13, 10.5 a.m. London, May 12. Before the high altar of England in the heart of that “acre sown, indeed with the richest, royalest seed" which is Westminster Abbey, King George VI and his Queen came to their crowning to-day amid a scene of great splendour. Apart from the august grandeur of the surroundings there was in the unforgettable scene something of the supernatural that penetrated the soul of every witness. Prelude to the great event that was to emblazon this day upon the royal record of England was the chanting of the litany as the Dean, prebendaries and choir of Westminster paced from the altar glittering with Abbey Plate, to the west door. Here, with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and assistant bishops coped and mitred, a procession was formed. It awaited outside the Abbey the approach of Their Majesties to the noble fane in which awaited them the flower and pride of the greatest Empire of the world. The King and Queen in their royal robes slowly entered. The ceremony over, the procession reformed outside and moved over a circuitous route back to Buckingham Palace to the accompaniment of the greatest ovation a King of England ever had.