Queen on Horseback

In a blaze of pomp & circumstance, Britain's Royal Family ended its four-month period of mourning for King George VI. Last week all the Queen's horses* and all the Queen's men discarded the trappings of grief (black rosette for horses, black arm bands for men) and buckled on the breastplates of pageantry. The occasion was the traditional Trooping the Color in honor of Elizabeth II's 26th birthday. Actually, she became 26 last April 21, but like her December-born father agreed to celebrate in June so that her subjects would be more apt to have a sunny holiday.

Winston Balks. Five companies of Foot Guards, brave in their two-foot bearskins, scarlet tunics and white belts, wheeled in long-lined precision into Whitehall's Horse Guards Parade. Each man was polished until he shone: each had been issued a lump of barley sugar, which was supposed to stave off faintness (in at least three cases, it didn't). Sharp at 11 a.m., as the two-toned chimes of the Horse Guards' clock echoed through Downing Street, a slim, girlish figure in the cockaded tricorn, scarlet tunic and blue serge skirt of the colonel in chief of the Brigade of Guards, rode on to the parade ground, sitting sidesaddle on a 13-year-old chestnut named Winston. Elizabeth II waved a white-gloved hand to her mother, watching from an upstairs window, then took her place before the towering guardsmen. She was the first British queen since Elizabeth I (1558-1603) to review her troops on horseback: Victoria, in her youth, wanted to try horseback, but

the Duke of Wellington stuffily said no. For one hour Queen Elizabeth sat straightbacked in her saddle as Grenadiers, Scots and Coldstream Guards marched and countermarched. Twice Winston grew balky, turned his rump to the parade. Elizabeth leaned down, patted him gently, and with an officer's help brought him about.

Philip Scores. Trooping the Color was the week's most glittery event, but there were others, now that mourning was over. Elizabeth had cocktails at the Guards' officers mess; Philip captained his team (Cowdray Park) at polo. Brandishing his polo stick with right royal gusto, His Royal Highness clouted the opposing captain, a U.S. newsman, across the knuckles, broke two fingers. Princely apologies helped, but the victim was rushed to a hospital.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth bestowed her first titles of the reign, including four peerages, five baronetcies, 60 knighthoods. Among those elevated: Movie Director Carol (The Third Man) Reed and Novelist Compton (Tight Little Island) Mackenzie, knighthoods. A pretty planter's wife in Malaya, Mrs. Patricia Webber, who has twice been ambushed by Red guerrillas only to escape, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for "great courage, loyalty and cheerfulness under very adverse conditions."

At week's end, the Queen's tabarded heralds, riding in their royal coach, made their way through London's traffic-heavy streets from St. James's Palace, to Charing Cross, to Temple Bar and the Royal Exchange, to proclaim, with a fanfare of trumpets, what all her loyal subjects have long known but like to be formally told: Elizabeth will be crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey come June 2, 1953.

* Including her filly Stream of Light which, for the first time, wearing the Queen's colors (purple, gold, scarlet and black), won last week's Lancashire Oaks sweepstake at Manchester.

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