The times they aren’t a changing. Not at Buckingham Palace, at least.
Tea with the queen on Tuesday looked much the same as it would have 140 years ago when Queen Victoria started the tradition — men in tails and top hats, women in floral dresses and elaborate hats. It resembled a scene from a 19th-century painting.
The queen’s first garden party of the summer season was a step back in time to an age when the food was flavorless — pass the cucumber sandwiches and milky tea, please — and everyone was ready to curtsy or bow when her majesty came by.
PHOTO: AP
The roughly 8,000 guests did not include any outspoken republicans or anti-monarchists, but the garden was filled with people who had dreamed for years — even decades — of attending a soiree like this.
Beryl Sanderson, whose husband is mayor of the south Yorkshire town of Barnsley, surveyed the scene with wonder.
“Everyone here is so proud and honored to be here today,” Sanderson, 63, said. “It’s so peaceful, so dignified. Is there a word to describe the atmosphere?”
Her husband Ken Sanderson said he found the scene overwhelming.
“It’s very humbling,” he said. “It makes the hairs on your neck stand up on end.”
No one can ask for a coveted invitation. Guests are nominated by civil servants, charitable organizations, the diplomatic corps, the military and other groups.
For most, it comes once in a lifetime, if at all — an invitation on special stationery from the Lord Chamberlain reporting that he has been commanded by her majesty to invite you to a party at the palace.
Many couples choose to mark the occasion by hiring one of the photographers working outside the palace to take a portrait of them in their formal clothes outside the black and gold palace gates.
Most guests do not get close enough to the queen to meet her, but they do get a chance to see her up close.
The most moving moment for most of the guests comes when the band strikes up God Save the Queen and Queen Elizabeth II and her top-hatted husband appear on the front steps, standing motionless in front of the huge throng.
As applause ripples through the crowd it is easy to feel the hold this elaborate pageantry has on the people gathered here.
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