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LONDON -- With her 90-year-old husband hospitalized, QueenElizabeth II embarked on Tuesday on the final moments of aspectacular four-day celebration of her 60 years as monarch buoyedby a remarkable outpouring of support depicted by royalists ascementing her family's place in British society. Riding in an open carriage through central London, with crowdslining the streets, the queen was accompanied by her eldest son,Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and his second wifeCamilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. Behind them, in a cavalcade of 160 horses ridden by guards inceremonial uniform, came a newer generation represented by PrinceWilliam, his wife, the former Kate Middleton, who is now theDuchess Cambridge, and Prince Harry. The princes were born duringCharles's first marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales. Tens of thousands of people crammed into The Mall, the broad andstately avenue leading from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace,in a sea of union flags and bright umbrellas under a spattering ofshowers to await the queen's appearance on the palace's centralbalcony with close family members. A military band played patrioticsongs evocative of a time predating the unraveling of imperialpower during Elizabeth's reign -- "Land of Hope and Glory" and"Rule Britannia." Overhead, a World War II Lancaster bomber escorted by fighterplanes of a similar vintage roared by in a flyby that included theRoyal Air Force display team, the Red Arrows. In the throng ofpeople celebrating two day of public holiday flowing on from theweekend, a spectator lofted a cardboard periscope emblazoned withthe words: "Thanks for the day off." The queen planned to close the Jubilee with a brief speech ofthanks to the nation. Apart from an annual message at Christmas,such broadcasts are rare. One of the most telling came in 1997 whenthe queen paid what some Britons saw as a belated tribute toPrincess Diana after her death in a car-crash in Paris. At that time Britons' support for the monarchy ebbed, but thepublic response to the Jubilee appeared to show the extent of theroyal recovery from those days. Earlier on Tuesday, the queen attended a service at St. Paul'scathedral, accompanied as she arrived in her maroon-and-blackBentley only by an aide in the absence of her husband, PrincePhilip. The prince, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, was taken to ahospital on Monday suffering from what Buckingham Palace called abladder infection, a day after spending several hours in the bitingcold atop a royal barge during a pageant on the River Thames onSunday. Royal officials said on Monday that the prince's condition was"being assessed and treated," and that he would remain in thehospital for observation for a few days. There was no immediatefurther word on his condition on Tuesday. Prince Philip's illness turned into an unlikely affirmation ofpublic support when Prince Charles enjoined a huge crowd gatheredoutside Buckingham Palace for a concert Monday night to shout theirsupport for his father so that he might hear them from his hospitalbed. "Philip, Philip, Philip," the crowd responded, offering anunusually affectionate accolade for a royal consort often depictedas aloof and prone to gaffes in his public appearances. Much of the official praise for the queen has been directed at whathas been described as her dedication to public service over sixdecades. To illustrate the length of Elizabeth's tenure, some Britishbroadcasters noted that when she acceded to the throne in February1952 on the death of her father, King George VI, Joseph Stalinruled the Soviet Union and Dwight D. Eisenhower was about to runfor the presidency of the United States. In a sermon at St. Paul's on Tuesday, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams,the archbishop of Canterbury, inveighed against what he called "thetraps of ludicrous financial greed, of environmental recklessness,of collective fear of strangers and collective contempt for theunsuccessful and marginal -- and many more things that we see fartoo much of, around us and within us." But, referring to the queen, he said, "We are marking today theanniversary of one historic and very public act of dedication -- adedication that has endured faithfully, calmly and generouslythrough most of the adult lives of most of us here. We are markingsix decades of living proof that public service is possible, andthat it is a place where happiness can be found." As part of the diamond jubilee festivities, Britons' celebrationshave ranged from modest barbecues in parish church gardens tostreet parties to the river pageant and concert. The centerpiece of the commemoration was supposed to be Sunday'sroyal pageant of 1,000 boats that proceeded down the Thames on aseven-mile course through the heart of London. But that event, doused by rain and buffeted by wind, seemedparalleled Monday night by a televised, open-air concert thatfilled the Mall with tens of thousands of people applaudingperformers including Stevie Wonder, Shirley Bassey, Kylie Minogue,Elton John, Paul McCartney and Jessie J. The stage for the concert had been constructed around a memorialoutside Buckingham Palace commemorating Queen Victoria, Elizabeth'sgreat-great-grandmother, who celebrated a diamond jubilee in 1897,four years before her death. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Sticky Magnetic Strips , Rubber Magnetic Strip Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Rubber Magnet Sheets.
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