The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-18 00:00:00

THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

Yesterday evening the Lord Chamberlain issued
his orders for the final details connected with the
burial of the late Prince Consort. It will take place
at 12 o'clock on Monday, the 23d, and, in accord •
ante with the expressed wishes of the lamented de-
ceased, will be private and strictly limited in all
that relates to funereal pomp and ceremonial. In
fact, the recent precedent set at the interment of
the late Duchess of Kent will be as closely fol-
lowed as possible—and though, from the very large
number of attached personal friends whom the
Prince has left to mom n his early loss, the funeral
must necessarily be on a scale of greater magni-
tude, it will not, as regards" state," be less strictly
private. In only one important particular will it
differ from the Duchess of Kent's, and that is in
there being a carriage procession from the Castle
to St. George's Chapel. It will be recollected that
the remains of the Duchess of Kent were privately
conveyed from Frogmore during the previous night,
and deposited in the Chapel to await the ceremony
of the following day. This course will not be fol-
lowed at the burial of the Prince, as the body will
remain in the private apartments at Windsor till
the procession starts. From the Castle the remains
will be conveyed in a hearse drawn by eight horses,
the hearse and the housings of the horses bearing
heraldic escocheons of the arms of England and
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. No private carriages, of
course, will follow. All the invited mourners, the
Ministers, the foreign Ministers, the chief officers
of the household, and the personal friends of the
deceased Prince will be conveyed to the chapel in
15 mourning coaches. Up to last night it had not
been decided whether or not the ladies of the offi-
cers of the household would be invited to attend in
the chapel, but it seems to be generally understood
at present that none but gentlemen will take part
in tie ceremony. Those who are not entitled by
rank to form part of the procession will await the
arrival of the cortege at the Chapel itself. No visi-
tors will be admitted to the courtyard, or, indeed,
at all within the walls of the Castle during the time
the funeral is taking place.

At the Chapel almost precisely the same arrange-
ments have been made as at the burials of the re-
cently deceased members of the Royal Family. The
interior of the chapel will be hung and carpeted
over with black cloth. The body will be received by
the clergy at the door, placed at once upon the bier,
and wheeled slowly up till it is placed on the
platform, worked by machinery, by which it is
lowered to the Royal vault at the proper period of
the service. The place which it will occupy in the
vault has not yet been assigned. The bcdies of
deceased monarchs, cased in coffins of purple velvet,
are laid side by side on raised marble slabs in the
centre of the vault.; their consorts and the other
members of the Royal family are laid, in their
crimson velvet coffins, on the tiers of ledges at the
sides.

Yesterday the inner shell and outer lead case,
containing the remains of the late Prince, were
sealed down by the officers of the Board of Works.
On the leaden coffin is a massive silver plate, with
the following inscription :

"Depositum
Illustrissimi et Celsissimi Alberti,
Principis Consortis,
Ducis S,ixonia3,
de Saxe-Coburg et Gotha Principis,
Nobilissimi Ordinis Periscelidis Equitis,
Augustissimse et Potentissimea Victories Regina)
Conjugis percarissimi,
Obiit die decimo quarto Decembris, MDCCCLXI,
Anno 03 tatis sum XLIII."

The outer State coffin will not be ready before
Saturday next. This will be an exceedingly rich
Ind elaborate case. At the head will be fastened a
massive silver gilt crown in high relief. This is
the crown the Prince was entitled to bear as Prince
Consort, and much resembles that of the Imperial
House of Austria. In the centre of the coffin will
be another massive silver gilt plate, with the in-
scription we have already given. At the foot will
be the Star and insignia of the Garter, also in silver
gilt. On the coffin, during and after the interment,
two heraldic crowns will be laid—that of his Royal
Flighuess as Prince Consort and his crown as Duke
of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
It has been stated by several of our contempo-
raries that the late Prince contracted his illness in
the first instance by catching cold while on his re-
cent vsit to the Prince of Wales at Madingley Hall,
Cambridge. There is no foundation whatever for
this statement. The deceased Prince returned from
Madingley Hall in excellent health, and, as will be
seen by reference to the Court Circular, was after-
wards constantly shooting in the preserves at
Windsor.