The funeral of Prince Albert.
[From the London Times, Dec. 23,]
During Sunday funeral, sermons were preached at all the principal churches on the loss the
British nation has sustained in the removal by death of the Prince Consort of
England.
Yesterday, 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 were interred in the last resting place 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 honor to his obsequies, were assembled all the chiefest men of the
State, and throughout
England, by every sign of sorrow and mourning, the nation manifested its sense of the loss it has sustained.
Windsor itself wore an aspect of the most profound gloom.
Every shop was closed and every blind drawn down.
The streets were silent and almost deserted, and all who appeared abroad were dressed in the deepest mourning.
The great hell of
Windsor Castle changed out its doleful sound at intervals from an early hour, and minute bells were tolled also at St. John's Church.
At the parish church of Clewer and at
St. John's there were services in the morning and afternoon, and the day was observed throughout the royal borough in the strictest manner.
The weather was in character with the occasion, a chill, damp sir, with a dull, leaden sky above, increased the gloom which hung over all.
There were but few. visitors in the town, for the procession, did not pass beyond the immediate precincts of the
Chapel and Castle and none were admitted except those connected, with the
Castle and their friends.
At eleven o'clock a strong force of the A division took possession of all the avenues leading to the
Chapel-Royal and from that time only the guests specially invited and those who were to take part in the ceremonial were allowed to pass.
Shortly afterwards a guard of honor of the
Grenadier Guards, of which regiment his Royal Highness was
Colonel, with the colors of the regiment shrouded in crape, marched in and took up its position before the principal entrance to the
Chapel Royal.
Another guard of honor from the same regiment was also on duty in the Quadrangle, at the entrance to the
State apartments.
They were speedily followed by a squadron of the Second Lite Guards, dismounted, and by two companies of the
Fusilleer Guards, who were drawn up in single file along each side of the road by which the procession was to pass, from the Norman gateway to the
Chapel door.
The officers wore the deepest military mourning — scarves, sword-knots, and rosettes of crape.
In the
Home Park was stationed a troop of horse artillery, which commenced firing minute guns at the end of the Longwalk, advancing slowly until it reached the
Castle gates just at the close of the ceremony.
The ministers, the officers of the
Queen's household, and other distinguished personages who and been honored with an invitation to attend the ceremonial, reached
Windsor by a special train from Paddington.
They were met by carriages provided for them at the station, and began to arrive at the
Chapel Royal soon after 11 o'clock. The
Earl of
Derby, the
Archbishop of
Canterbury, Earl Russell, and the
Duke of Buckcleuch were among the first to make their appearance, and as they alighted at the door of the chapel they were received by the proper officials, and conducted to the seats appointed for them in the choir.
In the great.
Quadrangle were drawn up the hearse and the mourning coaches, and, all the preparations having been completed within the castle, the procession began to be formed shortly before 12 o'clock. It had been originally intended that it should leave the castle by the
St. George's gate, and proceeding down
Castle hill approach the chapel through Henry VIII,'s gateway, but at a late hour this arrangement was changed, and the shorter route by the Norman gateway was chosen.
The crowd which had gradually collected at the foot of
Castle hill, owing to this change, saw nothing of the procession but the empty carriages as they returned to the
Castle after setting down at the chapel.
The few spectators who were fortunate enough to gain admission to the
Lower Ward stood in a narrow fringe along the edge of the flag in front of the houses of the
Poor Knights, and their presence was the only exception to the strict privacy of the ceremonial.
The Prince of
Wales and the other royal mourners assembled in the
Oak Room, but did not form part of the procession.
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 was the
Prince of
Wales, Prince Arthur, and the
Duke of
Saxe-
Coburg.
The Crown
Prince of
Prussia, the
Duke of Brabant, and the
Count of
Flanders followed in the next; and in the others were the Dac de
Nemours,
Prince.
Louis of Heses, Prince Edward of
Saxe-Welmer, and the
Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, with the gentlemen of their respective suits.
Scarcely had they alighted at the door of Woolsey's Chapel, from 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 minute gun fired in the distance and the rattle of the troops reversing arms announced that the procession 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 horses, conveying the physicians, equerries, and other members of the household of the late
Prince.
In the last were the
Lord Steward, (
Earl St. Germans,) he Lord Chamberlain (
Viscount Sidney,) and the
Master of the Horse, (the
Marquis of Allesbury.) The carriages and trappings were of the plainest description; the horses had black velvet housings and feathers, but on the carriages there were no feathers or ornaments of 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 Lennox, carrying the talon, sword and hat of his late Royal Highness.
Next escorted by a troop of the Second 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 escutcheons 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 processing was closed by four state carriages.
