THE FUNERAL,

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 287, 10 April 1862, Page 4

THE FUNERAL,

(Erom the Tintqs of Dec. 20.) On Monday, with little of the pomp and pageantry of a State ceremonial, but with every outward mark of respect, and with all the solemnity- which befitted his high station and his public virtues, the mortal remains of the' husband of our Queen wore, interred in the last restingplace of England’s sovereigns—the Chapel Royal of St. George’s, Windsor. By the express desire of His Royal Highness, the funeral was of the plainest and most private, character; but in the Chapel, to do. honour to his obsequies, were assembled all the cliiefpst men of the State, and throughout England, by every sign of sorrow and mourning, the nation manifested its sense of the loss which it has sustained:.

WirLflsoj’- wore an aspect of the most profound gloom. Every shop was closed, tind every blind drawn down. The streets were silent and almost deserted, and all who appeared abroad were dressed in the deepest mourning. The great bell of 'Windsor Castle clanged; out its doleful sound at intervals from an early hour, and minute-bells tolled also at St. John’s. Church. The Prince of Wales, and; the other royal mourners assembled in the Oak Room, but did not form part of the pro-, cession. They were conveyed to the Chapel in private carriages, before the coffin, was placed in the Hearse, passing through St. George’s gateway into the Lower Ward. In the first carriage -were the Prince of Wales, Prince Arthur, and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. The Crown Prince of Prussia, the Duke of Brabapt, and the Count of Flanders followed in the next; apd ip th ( e. others were the D.uc do Nemours, Prince Louis of Hesse, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, and the Maharajah Dhuleep Singly, with the gentlemen, of their respective suites. Scarcely had they alighted at the. door of Wolsey’s Chapel, front which they were conducted through, the Chapter Room to the door of the Chapel-Royal, to be in readiness to, meet the coffin, when the first fidnute gun fired in the distance, and the rattle of the troops reversing arms announced that ■ the pi’pr. cession had started, and exactly at twelve o’clock the first mourning coach moved from under the Norman gateway. First came nine mourning coaches, each drawn by four hpys,es, conveying the. Equerries, and other members af the household of the lute Pripqe, In tha hist were the Lord Steward (Earl St. Germans), the I<ord Chamberlain (Viscount Sidney), and the Master of the Horse (the Marquis of Aileshury.) The carriages and trappings were of the. plain-* est description; the horses, had blacky velvet housings and feathers, but on the carriages thei’e were no feathers or ornaments pf any kind. .. The mourning coaches were followed by one of the Queen’s carriages, drawn by six horses, and attended by servants in State Liveries, in which was the Groom of the Stole, Earl Spencer, carrying the crown, and a Lord of the Bedchamber, Lord George Leiiuox, carrying the baton, sword, and hat of his late Royal Highness. Next, escorted by a troop of the 2d Life Guards, came the

hearse, drawn by six black horses, which like the carriages, was quite plain and unornamented. On the housings of the horses and on the sides of the hearse were emblazoned the scutcheons of Her Majesty and of the Prince, each surmounted by a crown, the Prince’s arms being in black and Her Majesty’s in white. The procession .was by four State carriages.’ , - Slowly the cortege wound . round the base of the Round Tower into the LoAver Ward, and every head was reverently bared as the liearse passed by. There was no. military music; the distant boom of the minute-guns and the mournful knell of the Castle Bell, .were tlie only sounds which broke the silence of the scene. Though the distance to be traversed was so short-, it was not until twenty minutes past twelve o’clock that the hearse arrived at the door of the Chapel-Royal, where the Prince of Wales and tlie other Royal mourners Avere assembled to meet the coffin.

The interior of St. George’s Chapel differed little from the aspect of solemn gloom and stately mourning it ahvays wears on these most mournful occasions. A raised platform had been constructed down the centre nave, leading from the south entrance to the choir,<with balustrades dividing it from the north and south aisles. All this, of course, Avas carpeted and draped Avith black, so that the change, though slight in fact, being of one colour, completely altered the aspect of the fine old building. The basement seemed black everywhere—black OA 7 er nave and aisles and side Avails, and deeper and more dense than all seemed the black within the dimly-liglited choir, Avhere the empty oaken stalls and vacant canopies of the Knights of the Garter gave a still more desolate aspect to the scene. The steps leading to the communion-table, the communion-table itself, even the walls at the. back, were hung with solemn black, and thus the groined arches and fine white fluted columns of the building had, by contrast, a bleak, shrunk, ghastly look; while over all beneath, so absorbing 'was”the dark hue that it was difficult at tinies to distinguish the forms of the attendants as, clad in deep mourning, they crowded the floor, like shadows flitting noiselessly to and" fro. So complete was this muffled obscurity of the basement that all the steps leading to the stalls would have been quite indistinguishable, but that the outline of each stair Avas marked along its edge with a thin line of white, AAliich, if possible, gave a still more cadaverous and skeleton aspect to the Avhole interior.

Shortly before eleven, the chief domestics of the royal household Avere admitted to the building, and took their places on each side of the platform leading up the nave. All were attired in the deepest mourning, and many of the personal attendants of the late Prince Avere deeply affected when the funeral began. The seats in the-choir reserved for' mourners whose attendance had been commanded by Her Majesty Avere empty till nearly half-past eleven, the first to arrive being Sir George Grey. He was folloAved by Sir Charles Young, Garter King-at-Arins, wearing his chain of office: alter, almost immediately after, came Viscount Turlington, the Dukes of Bucoleuch and Newcastle, the Earl of Derby, the Marquis of Exeter, and M. Van de Weyer, the Belgian Minister. The Knights of the Garter took their own stalls under their banners, at the back of the choir; the other mourners sat in front, nearest to the grave. Only one or two among those present Avore orders, and even these were almost entirely concealed under the broad black silk mourning scarfs. Lord Colville, of Culross, as commanding the Hon. Artillery Company,;-of which His late Royal Highness -Was 1 Oblonel, wore his uniform, with deep, military'mourning, Among the others present on this melancholy occasion ,yere—Count de Lavradio, the Portugese. Minister; Count Brandenburg, the Prussian Charge de Affairs.; Earl; GranviJle,' K. G., Lord. Lord President of the Council; Earl Russell, Secretary of State for the Foreign Department; the Right Hon. Sir George Cornewall LeAvis, Bart., M.P., Secretary of State for the War Depart-, ment; the Right Hoi;u Sjy Carles Wood; Bart., M.P., G. 0.8., Secretary of State for the Indian Department; the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. Chancellor of the Exchequer; the. Duke of Somerset, First Lard of the Admiralty; Lord Stapley of Alderley, Postmaster-General; the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P., Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; the Right Hon. Thomas Milner Gibson, M.P., President of the Board of Trade; the Right Hon, C. Pelham Villiers, M.P., Chief Commissioner of the Poorlaw Board; the Earl of Carlisle, K.G., Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; the Right Hon. Wm. Cowper, First Commissioner of Works; and the Hon. Charles A. Gore, First Commissioner of Woods. Among the officers of the Queen’s Household Ayere —Viscount Bury, the of the Household; Lord Proby the Controller of tho Hpjisehold; the Earl of Caithegs, Lorcl, Rivers, Lpi’d. de Tabley, Lord Cvemorne, K.Jh, Lord Harris, K. 5.1., and Lord Met&uen, Loyds-in-Waiting; the Hon. Mortimer Sapkvilie West, Colonel tlie Hon, George Augustus Liddell, tlie Crooms-in-Waitingj Colonel Lord James Murray and Gene* ral Sir Frederick §>tovin, G.C,B„ Extra? Gropjns. sin - Waiting; .Lie\itey'a'nt Colonel Lord Augustus; - ' Cljarle§, J* Fitzroy and Major-General Seymour, Equerries; Lieutenant'Go.lonel G. A. Maude, C. 8., Crown-Equerry; and Mr, Woodward, Librarian.

The other, distinguished personages also invited Avere—the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of Athole, K.T., (the Duchess being Lady of the Bed

Chamber in Waitifig‘hpon~Her Majesty); the Duke of Manchester,formerly Lord of the Bed-Chamber to His late Royal Highness: the Duke of Wellington, K.G., (theft) uchess being Mistress of the Utobes); the Marquis of Abercoin, K.G.; Lord Ebury, formei’ly "Groom of the Stole to His late Royal Highness; the Marquis of Breadalbane, IC.T.; the Earl de la Warr; the Earl e of Clarendon, K. G., G. C. B.; his Excellency Earl Cowley, G C. B. ; Viscount Clifdon and Lord Bagot, formerly Lords of the Bed-Cham-ber to His late Royal Highness; the Lord Bishop of London, Dean of Her Majesty’s Chapels-Royal ; the Lord Bishop of Oxford, .the Lord Bishop of Chester, and the Lord Bishop of Worcester, formerly Chaplains to His late Royal Highness; Lord Portman, Commissioner of the Duchy of Cornwall; the Speak.r of the House of Commons &•-.

All who were invited to attend the ceremony v'ere in their places shortly before tAvelvc o’clock, and an interval of silence, almost of supen.se, seemed to reign throughout tlie building. Not a word was-spoken, not a movement ipa.de, and the stillness Avas painful, as it alloAved the tolling of the funeral knells and the sullen reverberating echo of the minuteguns to be loudly and distinctly audible throughout the chapel. With the first tokens of tlie approach of the funeral procession it Avas formed tAVO deep, passing along doAvn tlie south aisle and up the centre of the isave to near the- choir. The south door was then opened, and Lord John Lennox, bearing the Field Marshal’s baton, SAVord, and hat of the deceased Prince, followed by Earl Spencer, carrying his eroAvn, entered the aisle. In a minute afterwards the coffin Avas carried in by ten bearers, and laid upon the bier. Here it was entirely hidden under the heavy black velvet pall, adorned at the sides Avith large funeral escucheons bearing the arms of Her Majesty and the late Prince on separate shields. Both shields Avere. surrounded by the Garter and and surmounted with their proper eroAvns—first, those of the Queen were on a ground of silver tissue; those of the late Prince on deep black; so that the. contrast between these armorial bearings Avas as startling and marked as that betAveen the white border of the pall and its gloomy centre. When all Avas arranged the Lord Chamberlain, acccompanied by the Vice-Cham-berlain, Lord Castlerosse (only four months ago the genial host of His late Royal Highness at Killarney), proceeded up the choir to Wolsey’s Chapel, where the Royal mourners had already assembled, and Avho at once slowly crossed the Chapel and took their stations in the sou tJi aisle, at the head of tlie corpse. The Prince of Wales, as chief mourner, •stood, in the centre; on his right Avas the little Prince Arthur; on his left the deceased Prince’s elder brother, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The prince of Wales bore up Avitli great fortitude, and though, he, like all tlie rest, at times gave Avay to irrepressible bursts of tears, he evidently tried to the utmost to restrain his feelings, though it could bo seen sometimes from the Avorking of his countenance that the effort was too violent for long endurance.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg, avlio Avas devotedly attached to the deceased Prince, to Avliom he bears a strong resemblance, was deeply moved, and Avept incessantly throughout the ceremony. The Crown Prince of Prussia too Avas equally affected. Poor little Prince Arthur’s grief was enough to move the sternest. He, of course, made no attempt to check or hide his feelings. His eyes Avere red and SAvollen, and tlie tears were running down his cheeks as he entered the Chapel. As they‘stood at the head of their father’s coffin, the Prince of Wales turned and spoke, apparently, a feAv soothing words, for after this Prince^Arthur, for ajjminute or so, seemed to bear up better. It Avas not until the procession began to moA*e forward, and the long melancholy wail of the dirge Avent echoing through the building that all the little felloAv’s fortitude gave Avay, and, hiding his face in his handkerchief, \e sobbed as, i£ his very heart -was breaking. As the procession advanced the com' mencement of the Burial Service—l am the resurrection and l the life, saith the Lord”—Avas sung by the full choir to the music of Dr Croft. At the conclusion of the first portion, the bier had crept slowly down to the western extremity of the church, Avhere it Avas gently ippyed up the incline to the,platform up the nave. At the end of the lesson the choir sang the German chorale, “ I shall not in the grave remain.” This hymn, like, the chorale, which folloAved at a later portion of the service, Avere favourite chants with the late Prince-Consort, by. whom it is said their music Avas composed. It is impossible to imagine anything more exquisitely touching than the cadence to tlie lines. “So fall asleep in slumber deep, Slumber that knows no ending,” Avhioh was chanted by the choir in whispered tones that seemed to moan through the buikljng with a plaintive solemnity as deep in its sprroAv as the notes of the “ Dead March.” Then was sung, Avith exquisite by. Mr Tolley, Martin Luther’s Hymn, “ Great God, Av]pit do I gee and hear.” ,

As the last-strains of this solemn chant ended, tlie personal his late Royal Highness advanced and sloAvly removed tlie heavy pall, leaving the • coffin, in aR; its mournful gorgeousness unooy* eyed, As thjs wasj,done, tEarl Gi’oom of the Stole to the deceased. Prince, placed on the head aboA T e the in? scription plate the the Crown of a Priupe Consort, At the same time Lord George

Lennox; Lord of the Bed-ohamber, laid the baton of the late; Prince as Field Marshal, ci'ossed with the sword, surmounted with the Field Mar dial’s hat and plume, on the foot of the coffin, above the insignia of the Garter. All these memorials were fastened to the heavy black velvet cushions on which they were laid. As this last ceremonial ended the attendants retired from the grave, and there was a silent pause, during which, as the wind mourned lioai’sely against the casements, the quick sharp rattle of the troops outside reversing arms was plainly audible. Then came the muffled toll of the bell, the boom of the minute guns, and the coffin slowly and at first almost imperceptibly began to sink into the grave.

Slowly fading from the sight, the coffin gradually became level with the floor, then sank deeper and deeper, casting almost a glow of colour from its deep crimson sides upon the cloth-lined walls of the grave, till it was lost to view for ever.

As the last trace of its gold and crimson crown disappeared, the service was continued amid the deepest grief. The collect concluded and Garter King at Arms, advancing*’to the head of the grave, proclaimed the style and titles of the deceased Prince.-

Then Dr Elvey, who presided at the organ, began the solemn ; strains of the “ Dead March” in Saul as the mourners advanced to take a last look into the deep grave. The Prince of Wales advanced first, and stood for one brief 'moment, with hands clasped, looking down; then all his fortitude seemed suddenly to desert him, and bur ting into a flood of tears he hid his face, and, ushered by the Lord Chamberlain, slowly left the Chapel.. Of the two, Prince Arthur seemed the more composed at the end of the ceremony, as if his unrestrained grief had worn itself out. All the mourners and those invited to the ceremony advanced, in turn to take a farewell glance at the coffin, and not one looked down into the deep black aperture unmoved—none quitted the chapel without traces of* deep and heartfelt sorrow.