July 7.
The visit of the King and Queen Scotland is endowed—with! national as well as domestic signi-cance, Their Majesties hold court fat Holyrood in token of the sanc~ ton which their sovereignty derives from that union under James I of England who as James VI of Scotland succeeded his kinswoman Elizabeth Tudor on the throne at Westminster. The King knows well the depth of Scottish loyalty and affection, the pride of Scotsmen the ancestral rites and ceremonies which are marking his Majesty's first visit to the sister kingdom, He will, however, recognize the enthusiasm which specially hails the lady by his side, To find a. pre~ cedent for Queen Elizabeth's entry Into Edinburgh historians go back the reign of King Henry 1, the youngest son of William the Conqueror. By his marriage with Matilda, the daughter of King Malcolm, III of Scotland, Henry Boaucleri" was combining matrimonial opportunity with statesmanship, His bride's mother was Margaret the sister of Edgar Atheling whom, after the battle of Hastings, the' conquered Saxons regarded as their rightful king instead of William I of Normandy. Thus Princess Matilda of Scotland brought to her royal husband an Anglo-Scottish Kinship which Breatly helped to soften Anglo-Saxon resentment against the Normaa conquerors. Henry himself was the first of the Norman kings to be born in England so his choice of a bride logically followed from hhis desire to plant. the Norman dynasty firmly in British sell. His marriage also ensured friendship between England and Scotland, although many bitter struggles had to ensue before the real union could' be effected nearly $00 years after the marriage of Henry and Matilda.
Herself descended, like her husband from Robert if of Scotland, Queen Blizabeth returns to her own country as Queen Matilda did in those Norman days, Scotland knows her as a member of the Strathmore family whose seat at Glamis is famous in Scottish feudal history. If Her Majesty has any apology to make to her Scottish subjects it is fon account of the accident which made the scene of her birth south fof the Tweed in her father's Hertford shire seat, near Welwyn. Her childhood however was spent at Glamis and to the people of that neighbourhood she is indeed as the acclamations indicated "our bonny lassie." Nor docs Scotland forget that her second child, sister to the Heiress Presumptive to the throne, was born at Glamis. On the occasion of her last visit to Edinburgh on Dee. 1, at a time when the world hardly' Knew that her accession to the Throne was so near, she received the freedom of that ancient city. When, at the conclusion of the ceremony the gathering cheered Edinburgh's youngest burgess," it spontaneously added te the singing of the National Anthem the favourite Scottish appeal "Will ye no come back again?" That tribute seems in the light of events now joyously recorded to-day to have Mr. A. J.. Evans British Shipping Vice-Consul. been strongly tinged with a sense of prophecy. Her Royal Highness, us she was then, had assured her countrymen that the welfare and happiness of her fellow-citizens would always be very near to her heart. In acknowledging the freedom bestowed on her, she felt that you are enabling me to enter more deeply into the heritage of romance and heroism that clings to the very stones of the High Street and its surroundings. I ead assure you that everything connected With Scotland—its beauty, His songs, its traditions—is very detr to me, and in making me a burgess of this city you are linking me fore closely, it that is possible, to my native land.
IL is certain that memories of those words have been active in Holyrood. this week.
Perhaps not even to those vigorous antiquarian societies or to the almost aggressive county associa~ tions of England does Scotland yield in devotion to ancient tradi~ ions and ancestral lore. Typical of that spirit was the whimsical fancy which induced the Lord Provost of Edinburgh to declare that, in conferring his City's freedom on the then Duchess of York, some people might perceive an attempt to make reparation for a dark deed of nearly 400 years earlier when the wife of an ancestor of the present Earl of Strathmore, accused of conspiracy against King James V, was burnt asa witch in the capital. This characteristic reminder of the Past was taken immediately to Point to the xeal reason for Scot~ land's pride in the lady of the hour—her services to the Empire as her husband's consort in his Dominion tours and her devotion to the social welfare of the people of that Empire. Those ser-views have been dedicated anew by her Majesty since her ac~ cession and, particularly in the Coronation Ceremony which is so vividly present to all_ minds. In their visit to Scotland King George VI and his Queen are fulfilling the glowing promise of that the greatest day.in their lives as, to use Earl Baldwin's words at the Empire Rally of Youth, "the servants of the sovereign people." On the occasion of this Holyrood visit which to Scottish folk in particular and to the Empire as a whole has 's0 profound a significance as symbolizing the unifying influence of the Crown, it is fitting to recall Lord Baldwin's definition of the task to which the King and Queen. pledged themselves in accepting a service-"that can only be ended by death": the dedication of their lives to their people's services—"the warmest-hearted, kindliest people in the world." 'Their Ma-Jesties are now among some of the warmest hearts of the whole of! the Empire. The rest of that! Empire specially rejoices that in Scotland they may. find family' affection and loyal devotion which must greatly encourage them in the discharge of the arduous duties of their high office.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.