The Fourth Olympiad London 1908 (extracts)

HAPTER VI. THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD MEDALS BY HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. A will have been seen in the complete prize li t which precede this chapter the whole of the long proaramme, containing twenty variou port , had not been fini ·bed by July 25. Apart from tho e event e pecially appropriate to the autumn month , :ucb a hockey or katincr, there were other port , ·u h a · yachtina, rowing or motor-boating, which w re fixed for a date in the summer later than July 2..... But b) that day the competitions in athletics, archery, cycling fencin rr gymnastic , lawn tenni , polo, racquet shooting, Timming tenni (Jeu de aume, and wrestling had been concluded and there were therefore eighty-three event for which the Olympic Gold~ Iedal could be handed to each winner by the Queen. H e recei, ed at the ame time, from officials whose name are given in the " aily Procrramme' at the beginning of the Appendix, the prize diploma, a diploma for his club, and a bunch of oak leave , which had been crraciou ly sent from "\Vind-or Forest for the purpo e by His ~ 1aje ty the King. Each was tied with a mall silken Union Jack, and the precedent o gracefully set \ ·ith the olive leaves presented by the King of "'reece in .\.thens wa · thu · carried out in our own country with the appropriate symbol of the national oak. The proceedina on thi the la t day of the Game in the ta<lium were somewhat difficult to arrange with due re ard both to what was e.·pected on so di nified an occa ion and to what might be con idered as legitimately appropriate for the entertainment of a cro vd of pectator· . -:\lore than 80,000 ticket-holder had been admitted on the previous day, and thousand had been unable to et se, ts at all. The concourse had been larger than any etn befi re within one buildina in this country. Within the e.·perience of police-officer who had een the Derby Day the Boat– race, and many of our , reat t Revi w , no reater crowd ha gathered for one sin le event in England than that which as embled on the J. larathon Day out ide the tadium and all along the roads from "'\ Tindsor, for