Straining for a Glimpse of Royalty

After preparations for about 30,000 onlookers, an enthusiastic but relatively smaller crowd of about 7,000 people gathered at the foot of the State Capitol to see the queen on a cool, drizzly day perfectly suited to the British Isles.

Everyone had a theory for the low turnout.

There was the weather, of course. But some thought that Americans, awash in pop celebrity, had little time for an aging monarch. Others wondered if the details of her visit -- released at the last minute by British Embassy staff-- had not been publicized enough. Others said people have become blasé about the royals since the death of Princess Diana and because of various scandals.

Outside the Capitol, the festive mood built long before the royal arrival as hundreds of VIPs and others selected by a lottery for front-row seats milled about the plaza. A few thousand spread picnic blankets and draped Union Jacks over security fences around Capitol Square as bluegrass bands fiddled and sawed. One woman waited nine hours and 20 minutes for an eight-minute sighting of the queen.

People in business dress mingled with members of several Virginia Indian tribes in full regalia, their every step setting off jangles of beads and bells. One woman wore an elaborate royal gown, replete with a swooping, clamshell-like collar, in a centuries-old style.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), as the official host, escorted the queen on a 15-minute stroll of the grounds. His wife, Anne Holton, escorted the duke.

The Kaines presented the queen with a first edition of "Jefferson's Notes on Virginia," which Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1781.

Wearing a lavender coat with pink trim, a gold brooch and fuchsia hat, the queen accepted dozens of bouquets of flowers from guests who had been invited by Kaine to watch from a rope line. She touched a few outstretched hands.

But of course not every hand.

"Do you see her? Can you see her?" yelled Todd Perkins of Richmond to his three children.

"I've been here since 6:30 a.m. . . . and I'm moving so much my pictures are going to look like they're from a race car," said Keith Gary, who said he was first in line, with his mother, Georgenne Hall, when the Capitol gates opened at 11 a.m.

"Come down here, your majesty!" bellowed Perkins. "Come down!"