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films of life in the British Army and thirty similarly devoted to (he Navy — all, I think, taken by our new recruit, H. V. Lawley, who had, by then, been with us long enough to learn how to use a camera, and use it to good effect.
But it will be tiresome if I continue to quote the titles of successive films which have already brought us up to No. 220 in the catalogue; and I will skip to a very important date in English History and in my own film-life. This was January, 1901, the death of Queen Victoria. We took the funeral procession from three positions including the one I had at Victoria Station. I cannot do better than quote from the description written at the time. 'This photograph was taken from such close quarters that everyone who takes part appears life-size and has his portrait faithfully recorded. A very remarkable feature about it is the splendid portrait which it includes of the King, the German Emperor and the Duke of Connaught. They are following close behind the gun-carriage which turns the corner right in front of the camera, so that it appears to fill the entire view. The King holds up his hand to stay the further portion of the procession for a while to allow more room for the earlier part, and while he and his companions rein up in the centre of the view, he leans over and talks to first one and then the other. The result is a most delightful group of the three august personages.'
That is how it appeared to the public: this is how it seemed to me: — I had a wonderful position just inside the railings of Grosvenor Gardens opposite Victoria Station. My camera was the coffin-like construction which had been made some time before for taking the Phantom Rides. When it was used on the front of an engine, I did not realise, or care, how much noise it made. In the great silence and hush of the most solemn funeral in history it was a very different matter. That silence was a thing that closed in everything like an almost palpable curtain, not broken, but only accentuated, by the muted strains of the funeral march. Then at its moment of greatest tension I started to turn my camera, and the silence was shattered ! If I could have had my dearest wish then the ground would certainly have opened at my feet and swallowed me and my beastly machine. But the noise had one curious effect. It caught the attention, as it must certainly have done, of the new King, Edward VII, and I believe that is why he halted the procession so that posterity might have the advantage of the cinematograph record.
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