Happy 90th, Your Majesty

London

WAS this the most British picnic ever?

Marking Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace on Sunday for a giant street party that included a hamper-style picnic, cups of tea for anyone willing to queue, and rainy weather.

But Britons are a stoic lot, and there was little grumbling about the driving rain pounding the The Mall, a tree-lined boulevard that seems to roll out like a carpet from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. On Sunday it was transformed for the "Patron's Lunch", in honour of the Queen's patronage of over 600 charities, and to mark her 90th birthday.

"We've got rain, gin and tonic, Pimm's and the Queen - it couldn't be more British if you tried," said Luke Tripathy, a 39-year-old construction worker who was wearing a rain poncho and sipping a gin and tonic at one of the many wooden tables lined with h…