When I discovered the late Queen’s cortege would be passing within twelve or so miles of my home on its way from Balmoral to Edinburgh I thought this is a bit of history (before her no monarch had died in Scotland since the father of Mary Queen of Scots) so we might as well go and see it. Something to tell the grandkid(s.) It would be the closest I’ll ever get to a reigning sovereign after all.

At first we tried to stand behind a crash barrier by the M 90 near Milnathort, Perth and Kinross, but a policewoman moved us on so we ended up on a motorway bridge. It wasn’t a good vantage point.

I did get a reasonable shot of the cortege approaching (the West Lomond Hill is in the background):-

However the close up I tried to get was too blurry. (The hearse was travelling at speed.)

I hurried to the other side of the bridge to snap this, which ended up very badly focused.

The convoy was actually quite large. This shows its tail end:-

It struck me when I downloaded it off the camera that it was fairly appropriate, though, as she was by that time gone. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor slipping inexorably into history (at 70 miles an hour.)

96 isn’t a bad age to reach.

Over 70 years as a reigning monarch is also some record, not likely ever to be surpassed.

But now anyone in the UK (and her various other realms and territories) must get used to having a king rather than a queen as head of state.

The late Queen endeared herself to many and seemed, to this casual observer anyway, a decent woman. Not that anyone could envy a life lived in the unrelenting goldfish bowl that is royalty. But she endured it uncomplainingly, at least in public.

In retrospect it can be seen that the loss of her husband eighteen months ago hit her hard.

We in the UK now enter what is a decidedly uncertain future with not only a new Prime Minister but also a new monarch, both feeling their ways into their respective jobs.

It is traditional in circumstances like this to end such orations with the last line of this song.

Elton John: The King Must Die

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor,) 21/4/1926 – 8/9/2022. So it goes.