Part 2: As English As Sausage, Egg, Chips and Peas

Then the guns roared!! and it was hard to distinguish the Hush from the roaring; the two seemed almost Indistinguishable. Was it the roaring, I wondered, or was it the hush that was The more fragile? In truthfulness I was disappointed when I got home and Watched more of the same on the telly. The British army is not what it was I have to say; the Gun-Salutes did not appear to be well orchestrated to my way Of thinking -- left one feeling all rather...unsatisfied. Gone are the days of bright red tunics, golden buttons and Tall, glossy white hats; and gone the long stylish sideburns... How magnificent those lads must have looked on the march. Gone also the days of the glorious campaigns. The valiant Battles. The desperate, heroic actions defending some hopeless Situation or some far-flung outpost that was deserving only Of camel dung and fleas...and certainly wasn't for the lack of Thanks we only ever got! ...same now for the Yanks I suppose. But glory fades along with the ages...just as our long-gone Age sank, ages back, into the fullest, mellow glow of the Whistling scythe's last Harvest Moon. For I am unapologetically an English man; and will die as Lizzie died... As English as sausage, egg, chips and peas. And to hell with those who decry Empire and Nation Building. We saved the best of it, and created many a Sovereign State Out of nothing but mud and straw. Lately I have pondered, that perhaps we sucumbed to what was A natural culmination of too lofty an ambition? Or maybe it was nothing more than a simple case of Over-acheiving? And if so, how do we arrive by the 'Grace of God' to all that?... Could it be an inevitable fate which was pre-ordained? But for the fact we had good glue we should have come unstuck Many a long year ago; But good glue we got...and still more to come I might wager. Tomorrow, no doubt, the crowds will line the hilly miles; And later we will have our pomp and ceremony... But what has gone comes but once. Then the whole world will watch, gawking, when an entire Race holds up their hands as a hurting child reaching up For the comforting arms of their firecely protective Mummy.