“ Major-General Sir ROBERT BURTON will take the command of the whele of the troops. Colonel Sir John Elley will cominand the household brigade. The foot guards will be commanded by Colonel Lord FREDERICK BENTIXCK. The detachments of the 3d dragoons, 7th hussars, 9th, 12th, and 19th lancess, 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) " TIARRY CALVERT, Adjutant General." These melancholy preparations being completed, on Tuesday, December 1st, the remains of her late MAJESTY laid in slate for several hours at Kew Palace, previous to their removal for interment. The very confined size of the apartments, bowever, not only rendered the issue of admission tickets extremely limited, but also left little space for that splen. dour which is looked for at the obsequies of Sovereignty. About a tbird 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 apartinent, sufficient to shor 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 morial of her late Majesty the Queen of ENGLAND, surrounded witb such ornaments of funereal pomp as al unce 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, io 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 gentlenien, in 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 Queex; and after traversing another apartment bung 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 ivto the garden of the house were shut, and none were allowed to pass without tickets. On the ouiside of the Palace were six Marshalmen, also in full uniforms, and at the entrance door, the Groonis of the Great Chamber, in full dress invurning, were in attendance, to receive the tickels. The Dowager Countesses of Harcourt, and Ilchester, also attended as Chief Mourners, assisted by two Gentlemen Usbers, 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 Yeonnen allended in the anti : 1 rooms, and a Yeoman Usher received the company, who, after passing It is now our duty to perform, as it were, the last rites to her Majesty Wednesday, December 2d, being the day appointed for the mournful ceremony, the whole of the metropolis and its vicinity wore a most solema appearance; and the day being remarkably dark and gloomy, was iu perfect unison with the melancholy occasion. All ordinary business was sus. pended; 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 bung with black; many sermons appropriate to the melancholy occasion were delivered ; and the congregations were numerous, and in many places crowded. The wlytolling 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 appear. ance, 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 morning, by small parties of the saine regiment. The detachmeat from the brigade of Guards in altendance during the lying-in-stale, 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 borseback, 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 delachment 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 hun. dred yards, were so thickly filled as to make it impossible for those wbo came after that hour, to procure a sight even of the Palace; and each car. riage, 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 bearse, and the processio a moved slowly forward in the following order : A party of Lancers, Two Lancers mounted to clear the way. Twenty ditto mounted two and two. ebony staves, tipped with silver, THE HEARSE, ed to the black velvet covering of each Assistants on horseback, in deep mourning. Assistants on horseback, in deep mourning. mouroing. Assistants on horseback, in deep mourning. A party of Lancers. The procession having crossed the bridge, slowly wound to the left, and, followed by an incalculable number of persons on foot, and an inuineosity of carriages, proceeded towards Longford. Her MAJESTY's private carriages were filled with the Ladies, Noblemen, and Gentlemen, who held the priacipal 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 thropged 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 Loogford 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 escorled it the remainder of the journey. The standards aod trumpets of these several detachments were hung with black crape, and drums eptirely muffled with fine black cloth, trimmed with rich silk frioge. 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, a a which also furnished a subaltern's guard, to assist in keeping the line open at the turning of the Windsor road at lver 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, tifteen miles from London. Here the Lancers were relieved by the 3d regiment of the King's Dragoons, who bad 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 i placed in front of the King's Read lun, and the late Queen's carriages drew up and set down the parties who occupied them; Done of the horses which drew the hearse, however, were taken off. The company in the carriages and the mililary officers then went into the ind and partook of a repast, for which preparatious had been making for three days before: an hour was allolted for this accominodation ; and no individual, wbatever bis rank might be, who did not belong to the Royal Corlege, was allowed to approach this inn, numerous constables being placed about the doors for that purpose. Having arrived at Froginore about dusk, where bis Royal Highness the with Six Greys–Empty. with Six Greys–Empty. with Six Bays-- Empty. with his Royal Highness's Household. in deep mourning, on foot, with flambeaux. each bearing a tambeal!x. The Royal Undertakers, Fifty Mules: THE HEARSE, MAJESTY's Body Coachman. A Troop of the Horse Guards. REGENT in his Robes, with his lwo Supporters. A Troop of the Horse Guards. Train Bearers of the Chief Mourner. conveying the Assistants of the Chief Mourner. Horse Guards. Horse Guards. H Dragoons. Dragoons. Dragoons. Carriages of his MAJESTY, drawn by Six Horses, Carriages of his MAJESTY, Seven Carriages of her late MAJESTY, Horse Guards. Lancers. 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 duriog 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 separale 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 tbe 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 wbich was thrown orer tbe coffin, and budg 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 escocheops 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 : |
