As the heavens opened, STEVE CARROLL braved the weather to get a close up look of the Royal Procession - on the rails.

IF there was ever the question that Royalty possessed a Divine Right, then the Queen's entrance to Knavesmire may well have dispelled those doubts.

The squall had been awful, the top hats had been battered and the new raceday shoes had been ruined. In the stands, a growing crowd found their home.

They crammed, sardine-like, into the terraces of the Grandstand and the Royal Enclosure, as the umbrellas of those brave enough to bear the course were pulled sideways in the gales. The bookmakers were not impressed.

"Come out you cowards," yelled one, impatient his first race profits were not materialising as hoped.

But it seemed as if The Queen herself had a hotline to the Almighty.

The procession began with trepidation.

For a start, it was early - as if the Royal party wanted to get the whole thing over with quickly. The Queen raised her umbrella in the first carriage, we all braced ourselves for the continuing downpour.

Then, it stopped. The skies brightened a touch, and the march towards the track rails began a little more in earnest. There they cheered - and the grandstands roared - as much with relief at the better weather as the presence of Her Majesty.

On the rails, they cooed, waved and beamed broadly.

The Queen had dressed for the weather. The purple trim on the umbrella matched a purple hat. She wore black gloves and donned a beige raincoat.

Beside her, the Duke of Edinburgh matched his wife with a beige raincoat and beige top hat. Her subjects, just yards away, were in raptures.

When Edward doffed his black top hat to the crowd as the Ascot Landau passed the Grandstand, the spectators lining each side of the track erupted as if they were spectators at a pop concert.

But it was his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, who stole the show.

She looked stunning in a white hat, with purple flower and white jacket. She was the punters' favourite.

"She looked absolutely stunning," said Rachael Appleyard, of Barwick-in-Elmet. "She even gave me a little wave.

I think The Queen could have done a little more," she joked.

Jill Bryant, also from West Yorkshire, said: "I don't think I would have enjoyed this any more if it wasn't raining. When you come to Ascot you have to take a look at the Royal Procession."

Up close, the Royals were everything those who braved the rails had hoped for.

Nothing could keep them away, not even a rainstorm. It had threatened to be a washout.

Instead, the procession was something to marvel at.

Updated: 10:15 Thursday, June 16, 2005