About this Item
Wrappers, printed in gilt. Slightly creased. "Bid us raise an Eton song, / Raise a song, Etonians, raise! / Raise a song of love and praise! / Love that grows thro' smiles and tears, / Sixty-fold in sixty years. / Sing together, one and all, / Shout together, great and small, / Victoria! Victoria! Victoria - our Queen!" The Times's special correspondent reported breathlessly next day on the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations at Windsor: "It was at night, when the party at the Castle had been reinforced by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Prince Arthur and Princesses Margaret and Victoria of Connaught, that the Queen, from a window in the East-corridor, was witness of a scene which has not been eclipsed for wild splendour throughout the Jubilee. A few minutes before 10 a few of the Eton Volunteers marched into the Quadrangle bearing Chinese lanterns. They were carefully set in their places by Dr. Warre [the Head Master] and one of the upper boys. At 10 o'clock precisely coloured lights flared upon the Round Tower, and the band of the Coldstream Guards came thundering in, and after them the Eton boys . . . The immediate effect of the flaring torches and the soft coloured lamps was, in a word, magnificent. Then from the column in which the boys were formed the Volunteers alone steadily evolved the letters V.R. . . . While the body of boys filling the entire quadrangle were in this formation the band played the first bars of 'God save the Queen,' and the boys sang two verses in perfect unison and in excellent time . . . Mr. A.C. Benson's pretty song, 'Queen and Mother, mightiest, best,' which was highly effective, was followed by the famous Eton boating song [by William Johnson Cory], which was given with immense spirit . . . Next came more songs, 'Victoria our Queen,' which was originally prepared for the 1887 Jubilee by Mr. [A.C.] Ainger, and then the 'Carmen Etonense' . . . [and] the song of which Dr. Warre is currently reported to have dreamed not only the words, but also the music . . . Thus ended quite the most striking and beautiful spectacle that it has been my fortune to witness . . .". Seller Inventory # 11M100106
Contact seller
Report this item