"Major-General Sir ROBERT BURTON will take the command of the whole of the troops. Colonel Sir JOHN ELLEY will command the household brigade. The foot guards will be commanded by Colonel Lord FREDERICK Bentinck, The detachments of the 3d dragoons, 7th hussars, 9th, 12th, and 19th lancers, will be under the orders of their respective Commanding Officers. All the troops employed on this duty, are to be in full dress. "By Order of his Royal Highness the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, (Signed) "HARRY CALVERT, Adjutant General." These melancholy preparations being completed, on Tuesday, December 1st, the remains of her late MAJESTY laid in state for several hours at Kew Palace, previous to their removal for interment. The very confined size of the apartments, however, not only rendered the issue of admission tickets extremely limited, but also left little space for that splendour which is looked for at the obsequies of Sovereignty. About a third part of the largest room on the ground floor being separated from the rest, by deep black hangings of fine cloth, and all external light being excluded, several wax-lights were suspended round the apartment, sufficient to show the objects present, without dispersing the gloom. A portion of the space thus separated from the rest being again railed off, within this railway was exhibited to the spectators, as they slowly passed before it, the coffin containing all that was mortal of her late MAJESTY the QUEEN of ENGLAND, surrounded with such ornaments of funereal pomp as at once show the splendour, and frailty of earthly grandeur. The coffin, of which enough was exhibited to shew the costly materials of which it was composed, was placed on tressels about four feet from the ground, and partially covered with a black pall of exceeding richness; at the head was placed the Royal Crown; over the coffin was the Royal Arms, richly embroidered on a silver ground, and on each side, at a small distance, were three immense wax-tapers, in silver candelabræ. At the top of the coffin, one on each side, also stood two gentlemen, dressed in deep mourning; and at the foot were placed four mutes, all in black, dressed like ycomen of the household, with dark velvet caps and black-handled halberds. The spectators were received at the entrance, hung with black, by several gentlemen, is mourning habiliments: and next proceeded through a small passage, very partially illuminated, and also hung with black, to the room of funeral state: where they then passed slowly, and at their leisure, before the mortal remains of their late QUEEN; and after traversing another apartment hung deeply with black, and also occupied by attendants in mourning, emerged from the melancholy gloom into the open day-light. The iron gates which guard the entrance into the garden of the house were shut, and none were allowed to pass without tickets. On the outside of the Palace were six Marshalmen, also in full uniforms, and at the entrance door, the Grooms of the Great Chamber, in full dress mourning, were in attendance, to receive the tickets. The Dowager Countesses of HARCOURT, and ILCHESTER, also attended as Chief Mourners, assisted by two Gentlemen Ushers, two Maids of Honour, and two Bedchamber Women. The Ladies in black crape veils, and the Gentlemen in full Court dresses. A Guard of the KING's Yeomen attended in the anti rooms, and a Yeoman Usher received the company, who, after passing through these chambers of desolate grandeur, entered the pleasure-grounds, where Marshalmen were again in attendance to direct the visitors on their departure, all of whom appeared deeply impressed with the solemn and impressive spectacle. It is now our duty to perform, as it were, the last rites to her MAJESTY the late QUEEN of these Realms, by presenting a report of the solemn proceedings which took place on the day of her interment. The common lot of mortality, which consigns all to the earth from whence they sprung, is but too well known to need enforcement, and Monarchs, as well as the meanest of their subjects, are obedient to this law. But as such examples are less frequent, they are therefore the more impressive. The stroke of death levels all: after that, no distinction exists; and if any apparent difference is created by the funereal pomp that may chance to follow, it is the living which reap the advantage-for the dead feel it not. Wednesday, December 2d, being the day appointed for the mournful ceremony, the whole of the metropolis and its vicinity wore a most solemn appearance; and the day being remarkably dark and gloomy, was in perfect unison with the melancholy occasion. All ordinary business was suspended; the Government and Public Offices, with the shops, were all closed, as well as many private houses. Mourning was nearly universal; and the churches, which were mostly open, were hung with black; many sermons appropriate to the melancholy occasion were delivered; and the congregations were numerous, and in many places crowded. The slowlytolling bells of all the churches were heard throughout the day and night, and every thing that took place was well suited to the mournful solemnity of the occasion. At eight o'clock, a detachment from the 19th Lancers made their appearance, slowly moving along the Windsor Road, and advancing towards Kew, where they were stationed, in two bodies, on Kew Green; while the road, immediately in the vicinage of the Palace, was patroled, during the morn ing, by small parties of the same regiment. The detachment from the brigade of Guards in attendance during the lying-in-state, having been joined by the detachment from the Lancers, shortly after the hearse arrived at the Palace, accompanied by a numerous train of undertakers' assistants on horseback, attended also by a small party of Lancers. The officers of the several detachments wore crape sashes and long scarfs; the drums were enveloped in black cloth; and though the small portion of the band that accompanied the detachment of Lancers had their instruments, there was not a sound from any of them heard during the day. The guard immediately on duty, which was detached from the Guards, as is usual on state occasions, also appeared with white gaiters. At nine o'clock, the Bridge of Kew, and the approaches to it for many hundred yards, were so thickly filled as to make it impossible for those who came after that hour, to procure a sight even of the Palace; and each carriage, therefore, as it rode up to the crowded scene, was freed from its horses, and instantly covered with spectators. At fifteen minutes before ten, the coffin, which had been laid in the state Europ. Mag. Vol. LXXIV. Dec. 1818. 3 U room the preceding evening, was placed in the hearse, and the processio n moved slowly forward in the following order: Two Lancers mounted to clear the way. Twenty ditto mounted two and two. A Palace Constable, on foot, dressed in state uniform. Eight Marshals (the late QUEEN's Servants) on horseback, in their state ebony staves, tipped with silver. The Beadle of Kew Parish, on foot, with silk scarf and hat-band. Seven private carriages of her late MAJESTY, each drawn by six chesnut horses. Assistants on horseback, in deep mourning. A detachment, consisting of 89 Lancers, in triple files. The procession having crossed the bridge, slowly wound to the left, and, followed by an incalculable number of persons on foot, and an immensity of carriages, proceeded towards Longford. Her MAJESTY's private carriages were filled with the Ladies, Noblemen, and Gentlemen, who held the principal situations in her household. Even the water under the bridges over which the procession had to pass was covered with boats, containing persons anxious to gratify their curiosity, but who were completely excluded by the crowds which thronged the parapets of the bridges, and presented an impenetrable barrier to their prospect. A variety of interruptions also necessarily retarded the advance of the procession in the narrow parts of the road, and the Lancers and Horse Guards who traversed the different villages, and threw out picquets on the main road, found frequently the greatest difficulty in securing an opening among the immense and diversified throng of which the crowd was composed. The escort of Lancers that accompanied the hearse from Kew was relieved at Longford by a similar guard from the Blues, as far as Datchet Bridge, where the procession was met by a Field Officer's detachment of 100 men, from the Household Brigade of Cavalry, who escorted it the remainder of the journey. The standards and trumpets of these several detachments were hung with black crape, and drums entirely muffled with fine black cloth, trimmed with rich silk fringe. The officers wore large black crape sashes across their breasts, and on their left arms, with a crape bow on their caps. The two roads from Kew to Windsor, by Colubrook and Staines, were likewise patrolled by the 19th Lancers, which also furnished a subaltern's guard, to assist in keeping the line open at the turning of the Windsor road at Iver Heath, and likewise at the turning of the road on the London side of Egham, over Runnymede. About a quarter of an hour before three o'clock, the procession arrived at Longford, fifteen miles from London. Here the Lancers were relieved by the 3d regiment of the King's Dragoons, who had been drawn up for some hours to receive the remains of her MAJESTY. As soon as the funeral arrived at this little village, the whole procession stopped; the hearse was placed in front of the King's Head Inn, and the late QUEEN's carriages drew up and set down the parties who occupied them; none of the horses which drew the hearse, however, were taken off. The company in the carriages and the military officers then went into the inn and partook of a repast, for which preparatious had been making for three days before: an hour was allotted for this accommodation; and no individual, whatever his rank might be, who did not belong to the Royal Cortege, was allowed to approach this inn, numerous constables being placed about the doors for that purpose. Having arrived at Frogmore about dusk, where his Royal Highness the PRINCE REGENT, and his illustrious Brothers, waited its approach, the procession was again formed, and shortly after seven o'clock proceeded to Windsor in the following order, each side of the road being lined with the foot guards, and cavalry bearing flambeaux. Horse Guards. Dragoons. The Carriage of his Royal Highness the Prince of SAXE COBURG, The Carriage of his Royal Highness the Duke of YORK, The Carriage of his Royal Highness the PRINce Regent, Three Carriages of the PRINCE REGENT, with Six Horses each, One Hundred and Fifty Servants of different branches of the Royal Family, Sixty of the PRINCE REGENT'S Servants, in deep mourning, with swords, Trumpets and Drums mounted, and Drums and Fifes of the Foot Guards. The Royal Undertakers, Fifty Mutes: Yeomen of the Guard, in mourning, with partisans reversed. Drawn by Eight of her late MAJESTY'S Horses, driven by her late MAJESTY'S Body Coachman. Yeomen of the Guard, in mourning, with partisans reversed. Horse Guards. One of his MAJESTY'S Carriages and Eight with his Royal Highness the PRINCE REGENT in his Robes, with his two Supporters. A Troop of the Horse Guards. A Carriage and Six of the Prince Regent, with the Two of his MAJESTY'S Carriages, drawn by Six Horses, Dragoons. Dragoons. Carriages of his MAJESTY, drawn by Six Horses, Carriages of his MAJESTY, conveying the Train Bearers of the Princes of the Blood Royal. with the QUEEN's Household. Horse Guards. Dragoons, At eight o'clock this procession reached the south door of St. George's Chapel, where the servants and grooms, the trumpets and drums, and the Knight Marshal's men, filed without the door. The Royal Body was then removed by ten Yeomen of the Guard from the hearse, and placed upon a car constructed by Sir WILLIAM CONGREVE. On all former occasions the coffin was carried into the church on the shoulders of Yeomen of the Guard, but the weight was often found insupportable; and to obviate any recurrence of the unpleasant interruption which the change of bearers to relieve each other necessarily occasions in the church during the performance of the solemn ceremony, this car was contrived. The surface of it was flat, with a groove to receive the shape of the coffin: it was about five feet in height, and was supported by three separate axle-trees, which moved two small wheels each; the axles were constructed to swing with facility, and make a short turn in a small circle, so as to make its evolutions with ease on the platform: this car, which was entirely covered with black velvet, was placed at the end of the covered way facing the great gate, where it received the coffin. It was then drawn on, after the procession formed in the interior, in the order it originally held along the platform, and up to the Choir, by Yeomen of the Guard, who were concealed from public view by a large velvet pall which was thrown over the coffin, and hung down at the sides so as to cover the men who drew the car at each side. This ingenious and humane alteration gave the spectacle at the moment the procession passed up the body of the Chapel, a feature of novelty, which it was impossible not to approve. Ten escocheons adorned the pall, and the solemn effect produced on the spectators by the view of an object so interesting, slowly advancing, apparently from a motion of its own, to the yawning mouth of the sepulchre, preceded by the Ministers of Religion, and followed by the most exalted Individual in this Kingdom, and the most distinguished of the Nobility and Great Officers of State, was as striking and affecting, as it was mournfully magnificent. The procession of the interior of the Royal Chapel was formed, in the mean time, under the able direction of Sir GEORGE NAYLER, and about half-past eight o'clock the mournful cavalcade from without approached the Southern entrance, when his Royal Highness the PRINCE REGENT took his place in the procession within the Chapel, and in the mean time the coffin was taken from the hearse by the Yeomen of the Guard. It was received by the Dean and Prebendaries, attended by the Choir (including that of the Chapel Royal, St. James's), and immediately the whole procession moved along the South aisle, and up the nave, into the Choir, every part of which was hung with black, in the following order : |
