"... it has to be said that royal births, weddings and deaths are probably the one time most contemporary Britons encounter religion."
Tim Stanley in the Telegraph today
Sam Leith in the Spectator today.
"It [the Gold State Coach] may be traditional, and it may look impressive in an antiquated, grotesquely ostentatious, fountains-of-gold-leaf-kind of a way. But by all accounts it is monstrously uncomfortable for its passengers. It was designed for the malnourished and inbred shorties who comprised the royals of a previous generation. It’s freezing cold and has no suspension to cushion the ride so it rattles its occupants half to death.
"Very expensive, gaudy on the outside, and miserable to travel in. I don’t imagine they intended it as a metaphor for the monarchy itself when they built it, but my goodness it slips easily into the role now."
Sam Leith in the Spectator today.
(In fact the British monarchy is not very expensive. Presidential inauguration every few years cost much more than four or five coronations each century.)
"But at the centre of the whole thing, King Charles really didn’t seem to be having much fun at all. He looked peevish when he didn’t look mournful. He looked bewildered when he didn’t look peevish. He looked mournful when he didn’t look bewildered."
Ibid.
I remember Charles looking pretty miserable on his first wedding day....
ReplyDeleteAlmost every normal man is miserable on his wedding day. It's his death, essentially, and his sacrifice to the next generation.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth at her Coronation was young and in that drab post war period embodied the glamour of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly rolled into one, only just outside of Slough. Charles looks like what he is. An over opinionated grumpy old man, who would rather be having a snooze in the garden than putting up with the faff.
ReplyDelete