Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/484

 Party of Villige Gleaners, with sickle and corn-sheaf. Milkmaids, with stool and bucket. Jack and Jill. Dame Dorothy and Red Riding-hood. Shepherd and Shepherdess, with pastoral crooks. Bo-Peep and Boy-Blue. Cinderella and Witch. A Gipsy King and Queen. Italian Nobles (in fifteenth-century dress). Italian Girls (modern Neapolitan dress, with tambourine). Girls in representative characters of:—
 * Africa with crown of feathers and assegai;
 * America—dress of "Stars and Stripes";
 * Australia; Canada (fur costume with skates on her arm);
 * India; Wales;
 * Scotland, and Ireland.

John Bull and Britannia (with her helmet, trident, and shield). Two boys, as a Huntsman and a Jockey, both on horseback. On a large lorrie, adorned with flowers and evergreen, Four Girls suitably dressed as "Four Seasons." Battalion Band of 4th King's (Liverpool Regt.). A Band of Foresters, in green velvet and silver, with bows and arrows, headed by Robin Hood. Two Heralds, in full dress, with trumpets. The Royal Falconer, with a Hooded Hawk. The Royal Swordbearer, bearing a drawn "Sword of State." The Sceptre-bearer. A boy in MacDuff Highland costume, bearing on cushion the Royal Crown. The "Yeomen of the Guard," in dress of red velvet and gold, as Beef-eaters. THE MAY-QUEEN, in white and ermine, in her open carriage of State, drawn by four white horses, with postillion and two pages in red riding behind. The six Maids of Honour, in white and purple velvet and ermine, in open carriage and pair.

This most beautiful cortège moves slowly around the town, the youthful "Queen-elect" bowing her thanks gracefully, in return for the many salutations and acclamations which greet on every side her progress to her throne on the Green. When all have arrived there, and the Queen has ascended the daïs, and taken her seat, all are grouped around to witness the ceremony of the coronation. The crown-bearer slowly advances to the throne, kneeling at intervals three times on one knee. Then, taking the crown from its beautiful velvet cushion, he raises it aloft, and places it on the brow of the young maiden as the three bands burst forth into a musical salute, and the loud cheers of the surrounding crowd rend the air. The sceptre is similarly presented to Her Majesty, and then the programme of the afternoon is gone through. This consists of a Maypole dance, a morris-dance, manœuvres of footguards and sailors, drill by Robin Hood and his foresters, and