The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-25
ENGLAND's ROYAL FUNERALS.
Those Before Ntctoria's suffer by
Comparison-Rurials by TorchIight
at Midnight Amid LeVIty.
From the London Mail.

outside Osborne House amid peaceful
countryside and closed in surroundings
equally suggestive OF rural quietude
turns the thoughts to the last solemn
rites of former monarchs, rites which
have not, however. carried with them
the same weight of woe.
a sketch of abe funeral OF her late Maj
estys predecessor on the throne of Eng
land makes but sorry reading in Gre
ville's memoirs. The talkative clerk to
the Privy Council writes:
Yesterday / went to the late King 8
funeral, who was buried with just the
same ceremonial as his predecessor $his
time seven years. Ii is wretched
mockery, after al. and IL / were King
the first thing | would do should be to
provide for being committed to the
earth with more dccency and less pomp.
"A host of persons OF all ranks and
stations were congregated who lohered
through the lofty halls. ehattering and
laughing. with nothing of woe about
them but the garb, ] saw two men in
an animated conversation. and one
laughing heartily at the very foot of the
comm as II was lying In state.
Inc chamber of death. in which the
body lay ali hung with black and adorn-
cd with scutcheons and every sort OF
funereal finery. was like scene in play
and as we passed through It and looked
at the scaffolding and rough work be-
hnd' 1t was just like going behind the
scenes al a theater.
"A soldiers funeral which met in the
morning, the plain coffin slowly borne
along by his comrades, with the cap and
sword and helmet OF the dead placed
upon 1t, was more impress ive, more de-
cent more affecting, than all this ponp
with paste-board crowns and herads
scdmpering about while idIeness and in
dlnerence were gazing or gosslping about
tho royal remains"
The death of George III makes n more
hitting picture, more in keeping with she
funeral of his great and royal grand
daughter In one sense his death happen
ed long before he died, and his obsequies
were rather the mournful surroundings of
a poor old blind man. Early In January,
$50 he broke up entirely, his bodily pow
erS delayed, and he passed away very
peacefully a few days later. After lying
in state on Feb. Is. he was buried on the
night of FEB. l6, in st. Georges Chapel
Windsor
Her late Majesty. indeed, is the first OF
many sovereigns not to be carried to her
last resting place after nightfan Up till
now torches have been the only lights
employed to ilumine the last sad steps
of those unhappy Journeys. Abroad. the
practice obtains in many royal houses
the last such mournful occasion being the
obsequies of our late Queens second son.
Prince Alfred, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg
Gotha.
In the Royal Duchy the body lay before
the altar of St Moritz Kirche, where the
funeral ceremony had been performed
n 10 Of nj = n.
ed from its temporary resting place and
borne on the shoulders of non-commis-
stoned officers up the crooked streets lead
ing to the town cemetery of Coburg. The
only light came from the fiarlng torches
which many of the escorts carried and
the effect was one of weird, impressive
sadness.
The funeral service of George II, which
took place in 1860, was performed on the
night Of Nov. H. According to Horace
Walpole,a hardly less entertaining witness
of his times than Greville later, the alb
hey was so Illuminated that one saw 1t to
greater advantage than by day; 'the
tombs, the long aisles, and fretted roof
all appearing distinctly and with the hap
piest chiaroscuro." In conformity with
the Kings wishes his remains were min
gled with those Of Queen Caroline, both
being subsequently deposited in the royal
Those who have read Carlyle may still
have in their minds vivid picture. of the
sudden death of George /. on the road to
Hanover, where he was buried far away
from his new dominions in the simplest
manner possible
The funeral of Queen Anne is spoken of
by her adherents as a very shabby one.
IA few faint tapers' glimmering through
the night, and ''scanty sabes." A few
days before, Thoresby, the journalist. Wis
tied the abbey. and 1t is he who informs
future generations that her coffin was an
enormous one. bigger even than the large
one which contained her husband, Prince
George Of Denmark, man of very large
size.
The funeral of William III, the Dutch
husband of Queen Mary, who succeeded
the last of the Stuarts, was semi-private
taking place at midnight on April II, 1902,
the day OF his coronation. The body was
taken from Kensington Palace, where the
King died, and the annals of Westminster
Abbey, written by the daughter of the
present dean, have an interesting account
how the wax effigy was carried on an
open chariot, followed by a funeral train
to Westminster Palace, where the coffin
was placed with it.
THE purple velvet pail which covered
the coffin was borne up the abbey by six
Dukes. but otherwise there was
no kind of state. There was no sermon,
no anthem. no other outward token OF
mourning marked this Kings funeral; by
l "a. m. all was over. and the coffin laid
in Henry Wis Chapel beside the wife
whom William had wept SO sincerely
His much-loved wife died on Dec. 2s.
1884. at the early age of 80. As THESE m
teresting annals OF Westminster record,
she was not buried till March s, as i'm
mense preparations were needed for her
funeral 1.-THE body was carried in an
open chariot to the church, the coffin
was covered with purple and gold. upon
which a few white fakes of snow fell
from the gray March sky"
The account goes on to tell how the nall
was borne by several great nobIemen, be-
ing followed by both houses of Parlia-
ment. This was the only occasion pre-
that Parliament did not dissolve on the
death Of the sovereign, inasmuch as King
William was still on the throne. Princess
Anne was chief mourner, and before
her walked 200 poor old women in mourn
ing. as at royal burials of Queens in oh
days, each to receive 40s. and a black
gown"
James II died a King m exile; his
brother and predecessor on the throne was
the last OF the Stuart Kings to receive
royal sepulchre in England. Tho eyes Of
those who saw these things are the eyes
OF those who are also dead, ana II is
only left us TO borrow their words EVELYN
states in his diary on Feb. "a:
THE King was this night very OBJ