The Queen spent a lifetime in service to our nation and over the last few days Scotland can say it has done its final duty to the Queen. From the moment six of the Balmoral estate gamekeepers lifted her coffin into the hearse on Sunday to the emotional service at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, the country has shown an outpouring of love and respect.
It was all done with the solemnity and dignity that on our best days we take as a mark of the Scottish nation. The landscape, from Aberdeenshire to the Tay and down through Fife to our capital, shone for the world to see as she travelled through Scotland one final time.
Thousands of us waited patiently and lined the streets of our villages, towns and cities to pay our respects. The St Giles’ Cathedral service yesterday, and the procession of the Queen’s coffin with the Royal Family from the Palace o f Holyroodhouse, was both quietly dignified and a historic spectacle.
It was very much a day of Scottish ceremony and pageantry. From the Gaelic psalm sung by Karen Matheson to the Scottish Crown resting on the Royal standard of Scotland draped over the coffin.
All of this reflected the Queen’s love of Scotland and how she anchored herself here. The restrained reverence of the crowds that lined the Royal Mile on Edinburgh, and the roads and the miles from Balmoral on Sunday, was breathtaking.
It matched the palpable sorrow felt by Scots and our affection for the Queen. Some have commented on the silence that has accompanied the monarch on her final journey across our nation.
It is true that events in the following days in London may see more tears, more flower throwing and more vocal mourning. But just because we do not weep and wail – it does not mean we do not feel her loss deeply.
Even the shouts of anti-monarchists have lent proceedings a distinctively Scottish character – as it is an obvious truth that there are many in this country who would wish that Elizabeth is the last of her line. But narrow politics hasrarely featured as people across the political spectrum have spoken of their admiration for the Queen.
All of these events foreshadow a period of mourning which will take on a very different tone when the Queen’s body leaves Scotland today by aircraft. The full pomp of the British state will be on display then.
But we should all be grateful that we have had an opportunity to pay tribute in our own way to a monarch who loved this country so much. On the streets of the capital and the roads from the glens to the mearns, it has been an honour for us to give the Queen of Scots a majestic, sincere and final farewell.
We’ll not see her likes again.
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