Fiat Lux... Jubilee Beacon

Thousands of beacons will be lit around the world to commemorate The Queen's 60 year reign over the UK and as head of the Commonwealth. Here at Willowbrook we took part in the Jubilee beacon project in our own modest way, by lighting a beacon on the hill overlooking the lake...

Our Jubilee Beacon was one of the first lit tonight, being set ablaze at 6pm NZ Time.

Britain has a long history of beacon lighting spanning many hundreds of years. It has celebrated Royal Weddings, Jubilees and Coronations by lighting beacons on village greens, castle battlements, church towers, farms, beaches, and mountain tops.

A beacon chain, once used as a tool for communication, has now become a symbol of unity across towns, borders, countries and continents and is often the central point of focus for any outdoor gathering or celebration.

In 1897 beacons were lit nationally to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee...

In 1977 and 2002 beacons were lit to celebrate The Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilees.

It is estimated that tonight around the world at least 5000 beacons will be lit to mark this important and historic moment in The Queen's Reign.

Post Scriptum

The Queen lit the last Jubilee Beacon at the end of the concert. Then ensued the most amazing pyrotechnic display...

Aqua Triumphalis...

Above: Canaletto - The Thames River with St. Pauls on Lord Mayor's Day
(ca. 1748). 

Tomorrow The Queen shall sail down the Thames in a customised barge, along with Prince Philip and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The Thames river pageant will be the highlight of the Jubilee celebrations and is meant to evoke the many celebrations which were held upon the river historically, such as the annual Lord Mayor's pageant, and the Aqua Triumphalis staged for Catherine de Braganza by Charles II...

The Royal Barge has been customised by donated private funds and a team of artisans working to recreate the ornate work of designers such as William Kent, whose royal barges graced these historical pageants...

 Above and Below: Prince Frederich's Royal Barge

 Copyright Her Majesty The Queen, The Royal Collection

The details were carved out of clay and then gilded...

Here are the artist's depiction of the finished promise. We will have to see tomorrow how glorious it really is.

To play us out let's have some of the Royal Water Music, composed by Haendel at the request of George I for a river pageant on 17 July 1717...

Above: Haendel and George I on the royal barge during the pageant

Post Scriptum

It was a splendid day, and the enthusiasm of Her Majesty's loyal subjects was not dampened by the inclement weather...

Livery...

There will be much livery on display over this weekend. Livery is the uniform given (traditionally annually) to persons in One's employ. The Queen of course has many in her employ, and her livery is certainly the most splendid of all, with her royal cypher (the crowned ERII) fashioned onto many of the state uniforms. I took some photos of one of the state trumpeters getting dressed in his livery before an occasion at Westminster Abbey a few years ago when I was lucky enough to meet Her Majesty...

Trumpeters playing God Save The Queen at the Abbey for the Golden Jubilee...

Her Majesty wearing livery of sorts, her official uniform as Commander in Chief...

Her footmen wear crimson tunics with gold brocade...

Some other examples of Livery...

Henry Poole is the most renowned livery tailor in the UK. They made all of the following uniforms...

For a brilliant post about livery at Henry Poole's visit London In Sight.

Long Live The Queen!

Diamond and Jubilee...

One of our Dorset Horn ewes has given birth early, to twins - a boy and a girl, which we have named Diamond and Jubilee respectively...

It seemed the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances.

Long Live The Queen.

Plant a Tree for the Jubilee...

Today at Willowbrook We planted an Oak on the estate to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. It is the first tree in a copse that will be known as 'Badger's Wood'. 

We chose the tree at Wairere Nursery.

The planting is in support of  The Woodland Trust Jubilee Wood project. 

Earlier this year Her Majesty planted an Oak on her Sandringham Estate to mark the beginning of what is to become the Jubilee Wood...

We erected a temporary sign to commemorate the occasion too...

Congratulations to the Happy Couple...

We extend our most felicitous congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the occasion of their wedding.

Anglophilia...

Anglophile (noun): a person who greatly admires or favours England and things English.

It must be said, I am an unabashed Anglophile, hence this rather random post about the things I love about England and We English...

Firstly: The Royal Family

Finally the long awaited wedding of William and Kate is upon us. Next Friday millions of loyal subjects around the empire, oops commonwealth, will be glued to their sets. A royal wedding- is there anything lovelier than a huge to do. Although The Daily Mail (whom we dislike in the strongest possible terms) and some other tabloids, are bemoaning the fact they they don't want tax payers to contribute to the wedding of the century and to one of the most glorious institutions of Britain, one which does more PR for Britain, does more personal charitable work than most misanthropic tycoons and has more charitable sway than other establishments, and one which visitors all over the globe flock to see. It is a shining light in the period of austerity and economic woe. If you can blow a billion on fireworks over Libya, what's a few million for bunting on the home front?

Then there's Prince Philip, who has a reputation for political incorrectness and social faux pas par excellence...

The Queen still commands the admiration of the British public, despite her family's rather modern exploits.

Above: Annie Leibowitz's portrait of The Queen

We have met Her Majesty several times over the years...

Then there's Charlie boy and his inexplicable second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall...

Above and Below: Camilla has a penchant for hats made out of birds' nests.

and which double as convenient cake covers to protect One's petit fours from butterflies when out on a picnic...

Charles' other son, HRH Prince Henry of Wales...

Above: Nicky Phillips' oil painting of the two princes.

Then there's Charlie's sister, HRH Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, The Princess Royal...

Below: Princess Anne (background not foreground).

Below: Again The Princess Royal (again, background not foreground).

Yet her daughter is the stunning Zara Philips, Equesterian extraordinare and face of Rolex Oyster Perpetuals...


Second Take - No It's not Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, it's Zara and her uncle Charlie!...

Let's not forget the completely forgettable Earl and Countess of Wessex, Andrew and Sophie, and their children, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, Princess Louise of Wessex...

and Prince James of Wessex, The Viscount Severn...

However, other members are unforgettable (an unfortunately irrepressible): Fergie, mother of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and ex-wife of HRH Prince Andrew, The Duke of York.

Andrew, The Duke of York...

Not such a grand old Duke of late!

Apart from the Royal family the other things We love about the English are:

Manners - We invented manners during the reign of Queen Victoria. Before that all people were mere savages.

Customs - The inexplicable way We do things, even, no especially when it takes twice as long and complicates matters, and even better when there is livery and regalia involved.

Traditions - Like customs, but with less regalia and more tea.

History - A short or long account of how We were right and the other side was wrong, esp. when it comes to the French, and the Germans, and well, most people really. As Winston Churchill said: "History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it."

Sense of Humour - There is nothing like a British wit. Call it cynical, call it dry, call it cruel. If you don't understand it don't panic, it is just over your head.

Eccentricity - The word we use to describe being weird. Unlike being weird, being eccentric is not a bad thing, in fact, some people strive towards it (c.f. the Royals, the C.of E., the Bloomsbury set, the Oxbridge set, the Badger cette).

The Language... Spoken by the Queen, and until ca. 1960, most of her subjects.

Regional dialects... A way of telling who's related to whom.

A sense of Decorum and Propriety - something in fast decline, along with the language and the manners and the customs etc. etc. etc.

For others out there who may just be a little anglophilic, here are some other blogs to check out...

The Anglophile

Anglotopia

Hail Brittania

Going Underground

The Greenwich Phantom

English Buildings

One London One

Please note: Vast segments of the above prose is written tongue in cheek, and is not intended to offend (either royalists nor republicans). It is meant as a glib trifle, hopefully not triflingly glib.