I have been watching a river run by way of London. Darkish and silent and sombre and chilly, it consists of individuals, trickling in the direction of Westminster Corridor. That is an inconceivable flood of folks, with an absence of the standard chatter and crisp packets and chocolate and cans of coke. It has 1000’s of guardians — the police constabularies of the Principality of Wales; the armed companies in their naval darkish blue, military khaki and air pressure gentle blue; the primary aiders of the British Pink Cross and St John’s Ambulance; sympathetic ears and carers from the Samaritans and Salvation Military; First Support Nursing Yeomanry and Scouts — together with water stations, limitations and battalions of portaloos. The administration of this tide has an unlikely codename, the much-rehearsed Operation Feather. 

Every personal second with their Sovereign takes round ten seconds

The second is being repeated in miniature, with books of condolence in cathedrals and parish church buildings, city halls and civic buildings all through the realm, and in British embassies and consulates afar. Maybe to our shock, Her Late Majesty is being commemorated because the Queen of the English-speaking world. Moreover, hundreds of thousands within the republics of Portugal and Brazil, France and America, Germany and Italy, with no monarch of their very own, have gone into personal mourning. Led by President Joe Biden, the world’s heads of state will collect as by no means earlier than when she is laid to relaxation on Monday. Again in her capital, because the Thames-side stream turned a torrent, it snaked again a mile, then two, afterwards three, alongside the southside of the river to Tower Bridge and past. Sensible heads now discuss of ten miles, bearing hundreds of thousands of individuals, stretching again to Southwark. 

Irresistible, the primary human driftwood took 4, then eight and twelve, then uncountable hours, to scrub into the outdated Norman edifice at Westminster, commissioned by the son of the Conqueror in 1097. As soon as the most important room in Europe, its stones witnessed Henry VIII’s coronation banquet, the trials of Sir Thomas Moore, Man Fawkes and Charles I, earlier than surviving the Blitz. Now its ice-chill, six-foot-thick partitions, hammer-beamed oaken roof and stained glass are witnessing one other distinctive occasion.

From 5 pm on 14 September, down the traditional, smooth-worn steps the deluge of residents cascaded. The surge will stop solely at 6:30 am on Monday, 19 September, earlier than Her Majesty’s state funeral begins. The top of the queue of the bereft, the shocked and the curious waited as much as thirty hours for their two minutes in Westminster Corridor. Inside, the method seamlessly turns into Operation Marquee. Most of the impeccable particulars have been chosen by the late Queen herself. Intently ushered by white-tied, tail-coated Palace of Westminster doorkeepers, whose silver-gilt badges of workplace belie their tough-as-steel safety coaching, the unstoppable surge of humanity divides in two. Both aspect of the catafalque, the present of mankind eddies and pauses. Right here, all races, creeds and colors mingle. Every is adorned with splashes of yellow or blue, wristbands from their place within the queue. 

Collected in grief are the very younger and the very outdated. Some are nonetheless in a position to recall the heart beat of plane overhead, the crack of artillery, the burst of bombs. The disabled pushing strollers, leaning on canes, others in wheelchairs, extra with child buggies or babes in arms, be a part of the queue. A squad of white-shirted policemen, led by a Chief Superintendent, march down, clutching helmets. Adorned with badges, scarf and woggle, Cubs and Lady Guides and Scouts in uniform observe.Later there are wide-eyed schoolchildren in blazers, metropolis fits draped with their safety badges, outdated troopers with headgear and decorations. 

The muted lighting catches pearls and medals, purses, backpacks, tailcoats, T-shirts and tattoos. Lip readers will catch a silent prayer or a choked “Thanks”. Most bow, some curtsey or cross themselves, just a few brace up and ramrod-straight, salute. For every, their personal second with their Sovereign takes round ten seconds, however nobody is impatient. Many dab ineffectively at moist eyes. With others, the tears move uncontrollably, while extra nonetheless chunk lips. In every single place are drawn faces, issuing concern, nervousness, misery. Twin canals of black skirts, black jackets and black ties. 

A tall candle of English beeswax burns at every nook of the royal bier. Atop the catafalque, glimmers the Imperial State Crown, lined with velvet and ermine, boasting 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 5 rubies. Notable are St Edward’s sapphire, taken from the Confessor’s ring; the Black Prince’s ruby, worn by Henry V at Agincourt; and the Cullinan diamond, minimize from the world’s largest treasured stone. Because the Governor of Edinburgh Citadel, Normal Alastair Bruce, noticed, “The Imperial State Crown is actually priceless. For its worth, you may as effectively add as many zeros as there are diamonds on it”. The floral spray of candy peas, dahlias, phlox, white roses, heather and pine fir, blooms gathered from Windsor and Balmoral, and the royal normal beneath, provide the one reduction to the darkish, darkish colors and moods. 

Splendid are battle axe-bearing, white-swan-feather-hatted representatives

On guard within the eleventh century corridor, constructed over an earlier palace of the Danish King Cnut, navy buttons and badges and brass helmets mirror the candlelight. Black bands worn on the left arm, burnished boots and polished belts add to the brilliance. Splendid are the 2 battle axe-bearing, white-swan-feather-hatted representatives of the Honourable Corps of the Gents at Arms, created by Henry VIII in 1509. With them are 4 bearskinned, scarlet-and-gilt tunicked officers of the Foot Guards, who lean on their swords. Their regiments originated within the mid-Seventeenth century. They’re joined by 4 hatted, ruffed and piked Yeomen of the Guard, based in 1485 by Henry Tudor after Bosworth, and 4 helmeted constables of the Metropolitan Police, established by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. White-gloved, all are bemedalled; 4, eight, twelve ribbons inform of service, bravery, campaigns, fight.

The fourteen heads of every escort are bowed for their twenty minute watch over the funeral bier. They will relaxation from their vigil for forty minutes, then return. When the watch modifications, summoned by the clicking of a ceremonial battle axe on the ground, the thump of trainers on mediaeval limestone would be the solely sound. From the onlookers, no telephones, no cameras, no branded clothes or political messages, no meals, no drink, no whispers, no voices, no noise. The stone flags barely echo the human gush, who’ve by no means stood for thus lengthy, by no means been fairly as silent, have hardly ever earlier than switched off their telephones or taken their palms out of their pockets. Exterior, central London has been hushed, for even the standard police sirens, blare of horns and hum of distant visitors is absent.

In every single place is an echo of that different nice state funeral, which got here after a life wealthy with service, additionally chosen by its distinguished recipient. The ceremonies that accompanied the deaths of Winston Churchill in 1965 and Elizabeth Windsor in our personal time, and the sense of an period ending, will bookend many lives, in all probability together with my very own. Every event has been hallmarked by the very British “queue”, an idea little understood exterior the British Isles — described as a single preliminary letter, with 4 extra ready silently behind. “I’d undergo all that queuing once more for my personal second with my Queen,” stated one mourner. 

In Westminster Corridor, the unceasing twin rivers of topics and strangers merge once more, having swirled across the foot of the rock that was their Elizabeth the Nice.