The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-04 00:00:00

WEST INDIES AND MEXICO.

Leave St. Nazaire on the 16th of each month for St.
Thomas, Havana, Vera Cruz,
_Now Orleans, Porto Rico,
Haiti Santiago do Cuba, Guadeloupe, Martinique.
JAPAN, NORTH AND SOUTH PACIFIC, AND
CENTRAL AMERICA (via Panama).
Leave St. Nazaire on the Bth of each month for Mar-

tinique, St. Martha (United States of Columbia), Colon,
Aspinwall (Isthmus of Panama), La Guayra, Porto Ca-
bello, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Demerara, Paramaribo,
Cayenne, &c., Callao, Valparaiso, &c., San Jose, La Union,
San Francisco, China, and Japan.
Hand books, with full details of all the routes of this
company, can be had of
STRINGER, PEMIIBROKE, and Co.,
Agents, 8, Austinfriars, London, E.C.

ROYAL INIERMENTS.

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Mr. Albert liartbhorne, in a letter to the 2 imes,
says :—The accounts of the investigation of the re-
mains of William Rufus will have been received
with so much interest by your readers that a few
remarks upon similar proceedings, together with
notes upon the manner in which some of our early
Kings were interred, may not be unacceptable.
The body of henry I , who died in Normandy,
was cut and gashed, sprinkled with salt, wrapped
in a bull's hide, and brought to Reading Abbey and
buried there. Stephen was buried in the Abbey of
Feversham. The body rested there until the Re-
volution, when it was taken up, uncoffined, and
thrown into the river. Henry 11. was interred in
his Royal habits in the Abbey of Fontevrault,
crowned, and with a sceptre in his hand. The
tomb was destroyed at the Revolution, hat the
effigy which remains accurately represents him in
a mantle, dalmatic, gloves, spurs, and boots,
crowned, and with a sword by his side.
Richard I. was buried at the feet of his father ;
there is no doubt that he was also clad in his royal
robes, precisely as he is exhibited in effigy. This
tomb was also dispersed at the Revolution.
In 1797 the tomb of King John, in the choir of
Worcester Cathedral, was opened, and it was then
same manner as he is represented by his effigy, with
discovered that he had been dressed in exactly the
the exception that upon his head was found the re-
mains of a monk's cowl, in which he is recorded by
Mathew Paris to have been buried as a passport
through purgatory. The body of Henry 111.,
dressed in royal robes, was by his own desire laid in
the old coffin which had once held the remains of
the Confessor.

The tomb of Edward I. was opened in 1744,
when the entire corpse
of the King was found so
carefully enveloped in a cere-cloth of linen that
each finger had a separate casing ; the body was
further clothed in a dalmatie, stole, mantle, and a
figured cloth of gold;
the face was covered with a
sudariurai, and over all was a strong mantle of linen
waxed on the under side. This cloth had been re-
newed several times in the reigns of Edward 111.
and Henry V. In the right hand was a sceptre
and in the left a rod, both of copper gilt.
The tomb of Henry IV. at Canterbury was
opened in 1832 in order to solve an historical doubt.
The body of the King was found wrapped in a
leaden case fitting close to the figure ; on cutting
through this covering it appeared in perfect pre-
servation, but as far as was ascertained at the time
there was no insignia of royalty.
Towards the end of the 14th century the custom
of burying in Royal costume was discontinued, and
in its stead a figure painted and dressed to the life
was placed over the coffin and borne in the funeral
procession. The earliest instance that we have of
this custom is in the case of Henry V., and this
"lively effigy" formed the first of those figures for
which Westminster Abbey subsequently became
celebrated; those that exist at the present day have
been irreverently called " the ragged regiment."
In 1789 the body of Edward IV. was exposed to
view in St. George's Chapel, when a quantity of
long brown hair was seen, but there were no traces
of cere-cloths or robes. He is recorded to have
been buried in velvet and cloth of gold. Richard
11. was embalmed, cered, and soldered in lead, ex-
cept the face.

In order to clear up a doubtful point in history
search was made in 1813 for the coffin of Charles
1., under the immediate supervision of the Prince
Regent. A plain leaden coffin was found in Henry
VIII.'s vault, bearing the inscription, " King
Charles, 1648." Upon this being opened the body
was found wrapped in cere-cloth, and upon remov-
ing this the face was discovered, still bearing a
strong resemblance to the portraits by Vandyke.
The head was loose, and being lifted out of the
coffin and carefully examined, the muscles of the
neck and vertebfEe appeared divided, as if by a blow
from a sharp instrument ; the coffin was imme-
diately after soldered up and the vault closed. The
coffin of Henry Vlll., in the same vault, had been
violently broken in, and exposed a mere skeleton of
the King.

As regards the propriety of disturbing the
sepulchres of kings there will be difference of opi-
nion. In the case of King John the remains were
exposed to the curious gaze of thousands, and in
that of Charles I. portions of the hair were even
carried away. It is perhaps to be regretted that
such proceedings should have been permitted, and
equally that the whole of the relics discovered in