First there was the changing of the guard outside the British Residence; then, through the cast-iron doors pricked in gold with the monogram of Victoria Regina, the high commissioner’s black Rolls Royce slowly emerged. On either side of the car as it slowly advanced rode a detachment of the King’s Horse…The procession, led by officers of the Egyptian mounted police, continued as far as the small cathedral of Saint Mary…where Bishop Gwynne of Cairo and Khartoum…waited in a chasuble and alb to receive the high commissioner…It was a world of ceremony complete unto itself, and the patriotic convictions served up in Bishop Gwynne’s sermons inspired the congregation with a feeling of everlastingness and certainty of fate.
