THE QUEEN'S CHURCH AT BALMORAL.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1955, 10 April 1875, Page 4

THE QUEEN'S CHURCH AT BALMORAL.

The World, an English newspaper, does not give a "cry pleasant account of religious services at Cra thie Clmrcli, \* hich ig the place of worship attended by Her Mftjesty when at Balmoral. The writer says :—The plain little kirk on the other side of the rirerhas, like its surroundings, deteriorated in the ricinity of a Court. Its structure remains unaltered, it is true, but its minister is a prize parson of surpassing eloquence and interesting aspect, the selected flower of Scotia's clerical garden. But lie, if the expression is allowable, is the stock company, and only •preaches when a star parson does not take his place, The parishioners of (irathie ought by this time to be connoisseurs in preaching, they have a wonderful variety of pulpit oratory. If the performance i leases, tho performer has his reward in a dinner at the Koyal table, _and-his bndat the Castle. . On a Sunday, when aflagi" flying from the tower of the Castle, in the bend of the river, this, homely little ehuich atCrathie b- comes a raree show. 9he big hotels at Braemarß and allater are full of tourists, among whom there is a large infusion of the Cockney and the American element, and who arrive late in the week that they maybe "on hand" for the enterprise of the Sunday. Omnibusses, postchaises, and waggonettes are put on the road, and the sightseers set forth hilariously with well charged sherry and sandwich flasks The arrivals at the church door are timed early, as the entrepreneurs*^ the sion are conversant wilh the etiquette established. The natives whose church undergoes these excursions have to get into their places still earlier, as they are supposed to be seated before the rush of the aliens comes. That rush is always severe, often frantic. The little place, primitive as in the old days, lias sittings f< r about two hundred, and there are sometimes more than that number of visitors. But there are portions of the building from which, indeed, the sermon might be lieard, if that were the aim, but which are quite ineligible for the visitors, who don't care for the sermon, and who have come to tave a good long stare at the lady who sits in the front srafc of the gallery opposite the pulpit. Obviously, it is of no use to be under the gallery, and in iact barely ©tie half of the area is eligible f«>r the specific purpose. Policemen euard the door, and stand aside when the time has come to allow the entrance of the aliens. Then, on a full Sunday, the rush is only to be compared to that up Drury Lane galleiy stairs on Boxing night. One day this autumn two females were knocked down and trodden on. and had to be rescued by the police. On another day an impetuous anq peremptory gentleman ragaged in single combat with a pol reman in the passage leading to the pulpit stairs. Another enterprising individual disregarded the prohibition against making *• My house a temple of money changers'* by having a deal with a native in the eyes of the congregition, ani tuddenlj remembering that he had business elsewhere. Often there is only standing room; the passage whence an eligible Tiew can be obtained being thronged, while in other parts of the area there are empty seats. The etiquette is, that before the arrival of the cortege from the castle all shall be inside, and the environs of the church cleared of all prying humanity; and the policemen are to be seem, like dog* outside a sheepfold, chevying the would bi • ingerers into the (-acred edifice. The bellman having rang his statutory quarter of an hour, st ps, but presently give* two or three more significant tolls. These he delivers just as the t^tle cortf ge drives up, and they are the appointed signal to the clergyman, whose duty it is, by the regulations made and appointed, to be in the pulpit awaiting the Royal arrival before he comes into action. It is the beadle's duty to inculcate this enactment on the officiating clergymen, and it is on r. cord that, doing so once with too much haste, .the flurried man of Go I rushed into the pulpit pantingly with his hat. on. and when he did remove that article, sac down upon it in his confusion. A stair-case, at the top of which is a door «pening outward, conducts to the centie gallery.. Once an enterprising gentl man secreted himself behind this door, that his view of what he had come to see might be closer in passing, and having accomplished his purpose departed whistling triumphantly. He bragged of his exploit, and had an imitator next Sunday; but the tale lad reached the ears of the burly Mr John Brown, who watching his opportunity, dexterously flattened the second aspirant between the door and tine wall. The Queen sits in the front seat of the gallery directly opposite the preacher; tho ladi.siniraiting sit there with her. It is a touching evidence of the enthusiastic losalty of the visitors to Deeside that the cushion on which —to put it without periphrase— Her. Majesty sat *as wont to be surreptitiously chopped up and carri- d away in fragments and that souvenirs were even cut out of the wooden bench below. If this was sacrilege of a kind —and how amiable and beautful even if so—it is no 1< nger possible. 'J he bench is now bound with an uncompromising strip of iron,and the cushion, locked up on week days with the commun on plate, is pl»ced in loco only a short time before the service begins. During its progress, a steady and universal stare converges on the gallery. Binoculars are freely used, and it is traditioned that a shortsighted. American once resorted to a telescope. Just as some people dish their dinner sooner than others, some can stare their fill more speedily than other member of their race.