Read it through once

On August 9th the great ceremony finally took place. Though shorn of some of the International splendour of the first arrangements and without some of the military and naval glory which would have then surrounded the event its Imperial significance was in some respects enhanced and there was a deeper note in the festivities and an even more enthusiastic tone in the cheering than would have been possible on the 26th of June. The solemn ceremony in the ancient Abbey--which had not been used or opened to the public since that final practice of the choir--was brilliant in all the colours and shadings and dresses and gems and uniforms of a Royal function while it presented that other and more sacred side which all the traditions and forms of the Coronation ceremony so clearly illustrate. The enthusiasm of the people in the streets can hardly be described but the spirit and thought and feeling were well summed up in the words of a Canadian poet--Jean Blewett: