On the streets of Westminster and all along the Embankment, the lines snaked for miles. Variable weather had little impact on the numbers. In the rain, thousands of black umbrellas were unfurled. In the interludes of oppressive heat, hawkers sold oranges and local householders sent out their maids to circulate with baskets of cups and buckets of water. Clergymen, shop assistants, domestic servants and military veterans took their places alongside dapper clubmen and fashionable ladies. Teachers brought entire schools of children. From grandparents to babes-in-arms, whole families waited their
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