Read it through once
The Review of the Indian Coronation Contingent on July 2nd by the Queen and the Prince of Wales was a brilliant spectacle, the enthusiasm of the reception accorded the members of the Royal family as great as on the preceding day, the massed crowds even larger than on that occasion, the kaleidoscopic colour and glittering splendour of the scene even more marked. The ordinary incidents of the parade were much the same as in that of the day before but British officers from British countries were superseded by a staff of native Princes blazing with gems, while the white soldier in ordinary British uniform, with only an occasional contingent of Houssas, or Fiji troops, or some other dark-coloured Colonial subjects, were replaced by an Oriental combination of varied uniform and complex colours. They numbered twelve hundred strong and the Eastern side of the display was one which the stricken King--deeply sensitive to the Imperial significance of the Coronation as he was--would have greatly appreciated and understood. The _Times_ description was an eloquent one: "To those sitting in the stands it appeared as if a great rich ornamental carpet of kaleidoscopic colour had been suddenly unrolled across the gravel of the parade-ground; a line of dazzling tints, before which the impressive grandeur of Household uniforms with attendant cuirasses, bear-skins, scarlet and bullion, dwarfed into insignificance. The front of the Asiatic line was crested with fluttering lance pennons, and beneath these flags were stalwart frames in vermillion, rich orange, purple-drab, French-grey, and gold-tipped navy-blue, dressed shoulder to shoulder, making a nether border of snow-white or orange breeching."