The entombment of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
The opening sentences of the burial service having been sung by the choir, and Martin Luther’s hymn having also been sung with great effect, the corpse was lowered into the royal vault, and the Very Rev. the Dean read the remainder of the service. Garter King of Arms having proclaimed the style of his late Royal Highness, the procession moved out of the chapel, Dr. Elvey, who presided at the organ, playing “the Dead March in Saul.”
The Globe says:—“The service was very grand and impressive. Lord Palmerston and the Duke of Cambridge were not present. The Prince of Wales bore the ceremony with great fortitude, whilst Prince Arthur cried and sobbed bitterly. The Prince of Prussia was also much moved. At five minutes to one the coffin was lowered into the vault amidst the deep and silent emotion of all present. Minute guns were fired during the whole of the ceremony, which concluded at ten minutes after one.” The following is from the Express:—“The chief mourner, the Prince of Wales, and Prince Arthur, the sons, the Prince of Prussia, the son-in-law of the deceased Prince, were the objects of sympathy to all. They went through the trying scene with as much composure and resolution as possible under the circumstances; but neither rank nor pomp gives any exemption from the sorrows that attend upon the bursting asunder of the sweetest and tenderest of human ties, and this feeling was quite manifest as the remains of the late Prince were lowered into the royal vault.”
The Duke of Saxe-Coburg has left for Osborne. His feelings of grief during the ceremony were most intense, and the Prince of Hesse> was also deeply affected. The Prince of Wales remains at Windsor.
The Duchesses of Sutherland, Buccleuch, and Wellington, the Marchioness of Ely and Countess Desart witnessed the ceremony from one of the galleries. The most remarkable features of the proceedings were their extreme simplicity and the entire absence of pomp or display within the chapel.
With scarcely an exception the mourners were dressed in black, and white cravats.
The procession was picturesque. Only two or three hundred privileged persons were admitted within the Castle walls, while scarcely 1000 persons assembled outside.
Prince Arthur was dressed in Highland costume, and his tears and sobs excited the greatest sympathy.
A Wail From The North.
The Banffshire Journal of yesterday says: “To us in the North of Scotland, the Prince was most familiarly known, and—apart from his position as the husband of our gracious and now sorrowing Queen—best appreciated as a Highland landlord. Our friends of Aberdeenshire have indeed lost a neighbour of whom they were, as well they might be, proud. As proprietor and tenant of the stately granite Castle of Balmoral, a royal residence that has yearly attracted thousands from far and near to Deeside, the Prince Consort was regarded as the very model of a country gentleman; for while he possessed and practised the rare accomplishments which so well became his regal rank, it is matter of fact that with the Highland farmers and cottars, His Royal Highness was the kindly-hearted and jocular laird. With the mountaineers—those who regard themselves by name and descent as clansmen of the Duffs, the Farquharsons, the Forbeses, and the Gordons—‘Prince Albert,’ for this always continued to be his title with them, was an especial favourite. His out-door feats and manly appearance were alike dear to them. A capital shot, a keen and successful hill and forest sportsman, and clad generally, when meeting with the Highlanders, in the garb (the plaid, the kilt, and feathered Glengary bonnet) to which their hearts warm so readily, and which his tall and graceful figure displayed to such great advantage—it is not too much to say that the Deeside and Strathdon Highlanders would, had the temper of the times called for such loyalty, have followed the lamented Prince anywhere. His presence at the gathering was always looked anxiously for clansmen, and only once or twice since the Royal Family took up their autumn abode at Balmoral, has the Consort been absent from the sports; showing, by his applause and more substantial awards, his admiration of the strength and agility of the various competitors.
Though His Royal Highness did not take any active part personally in local country matters, yet he was no unobservant spectator of what was going on in this respect in the shire—his excellent and able resident commissioner, Dr. Robertson of Indego, being the medium through which he was consulted and represented. It is well known that His Royal Highness was very proud of Balmoral Castle. He took a lively interest in its progress while building, and every year has seen important improvements made on the outhouses and the laying-out of the grounds, as well as over the estate generally. The latest addition to the Royal ‘Highland Home’ is the erection, within the present season, of a handsome farmsteading, the completion of which with the ‘stocking’ of the farm, the agriculturists of Aberdeenshire had already begun to speak of with interest, in connection with the likelihood of meeting the Prince Consort as a worthy competitor and rival at the local cattle shows.
Nor was His Royal Highness less respected and esteemed in the city of Aberdeen. His courteous manner to the spectators at the railway station, as he passed to and from the Highlands, warmly ingratiated him with the citizens, and as we have already noticed one of his very ablest public addresses was given to the Aberdonians on the occasion of his honouring them by opening their fine new Music Hall, on his appointment as President of the British Association there in 1859. Thus in many respects the connection of the late illustrious Prince with the North of Scotland was one from which flowed not a few happy influences, and we do not wonder therefore to hear from our correspondents in Aberdeen and along Deeside that the mournful tidings of his death have been received with deep and unaffected sorrow. the memory of the departed Prince will long be cherished in the Highlands of Scotland.
The continental press on the death of the Prince Consort.
The Moniteur, after announcing the sad event, adds:—“This sad event, this most sudden and premature death, plunges into sorrow the august Queen of England, the Royal Family of England, and the English nation. The Emperor, the Imperial family, and the whole of France associate themselves with all their sympathies to these regrets and sorrows.”
The Debates says:—“The mournful and premature event with has befallen the Queen and the Royal Family, in the midst of the gravest political difficulties, will be keenly felt, not only in England, but throughout Europe. In France, especially, where Prince Albert has left personal recollections, public opinion will, we are confident, unite in the private but severe grief into which this great misfortune has plunged Queen Victoria, the constant and faithful ally of France.”
The Siècle observes:—“In a difficult position, Prince Albert won the esteem of the English nation and the sympathy of all those who, artists, literary men, inventors, scientific men, form the party in England of intellectual progress, in which the deceased Prince was specially interested. Frankly accepting the subordinate part of the Sovereign’s husband, he sought, in learning and the protection of the arts and of industry, an employment, useful to his new country, of that intellectual activity which he was prevented by the traditional susceptibilities of the nation from applying to political affairs.”
“His elevated tastes, the dignity of his character,” says La Presse, “obtained for the deceased Prince a well deserved popularity.”
The Indépendance Belge has the following comments:—“Although placed in a position more subordinate, but not less difficult than that of a reigning Sovereign, especially towards a people who are proud, reserved, and impatient of all foreign influence, Prince Albert, without ev rever exciting the leatleast censure, succeeded in exercising in the counsels of Great Britain, with as much dignity as prudence, a legitimate authority, the good effects of which are denied by none. All the useful institutions which originated in England by the initiative of the people—in this country so vigorous—were honoured with his advocacy, one which was never sterile or merely nominal. Wherever there was progress to hasten, serious work to found or develop, the sympathetic, active and energetic concurrence of the Queen’s husband was ever to be reckoned upon. This intelligent and comprehensive participation of the Prince in the social life of the English at first gained him their esteem and then their affection. They regarded him as one of themselves, and certain prejudices, or rather instinctive prepossessions against him at the time of his marriage with the Queen on account of his nationality and tendencies towards absolutism which were more or less attributed to him, were soon completely dispersed, to be replaced by feelings of the utmost cordiality. Thus his loss will be deeply felt, and all England will participate in the grief of the Royal Family.”
The Apprentice Boys of Derry.—The Apprentice Boys of Derry had made the usual arrangements for celebrating the anniversary of the “shutting of the gates” on the 18th, with the customary and appropriate rejoicings; but in consequence of the death of the Prince Consort, the committee met on the previous evening, and resolved that the celebration should “be modified, and that the entire proceedings of the day should be conducted in such a manner as to manifest their sympathy with their gracious Sovereign, and their devoted and loyal attachment to the Throne.” They could not, however, resist the desire to hoist the colossal figure of the traitor Lundy to its old place at the top of Walker’s Pillar, where it appeared dangling in the air at six o’clock, a. m. At seven o’clock the celebrants assembled and discharged twenty one rounds from well-equipped fieldpieces. Guns were fired at intervals during the day, and instead of the joybells the Cathedral bell tolled a solemn peal. They attended Divine worship, not in the Cathedral, which is now undergoing repairs, but in a little chapel of ease, on the Wall, where a sermon was preached on the death of the Prince Consort. After Divine service they again formed in procession in front of Walker’s monument, their sashes and distinctive badges covered wi hwith crape. Having passed the usual vote of thanks to the preacher, it was unanimously resolved that “an address of condolence should be prepared and presented to her Majesty expressive of their sympathy and respect.” It would have been better if they had imitated the good taste of the Dublin corporation, and abstained from adopting any address to her Majesty.
Albert
December Fourteenth, 1861.
How should the Princes die?
With red spur deep in maddening charger’s flank,
Leading the rush that cleaves the foeman’s rank,
And shouting some time-famous battle cry!
Ending a pleasure day,
Joy’s painted goblet fully drained, and out,
While wearied vassals coldly stand about,
And con new homage which they long to pay?
So have the Princes died.
Nobler and happier far the fate that falls
On him who, ’mid yon aged Castle walls,
Hears, as he goes, the plash of Thames’s tide.
Gallant, high-natured, brave,
O, had his lot been cast in warrior days,
No nobler knight had won the minstrel’s praise,
Than he, for whom the half-reared banners wave.
Or, graced with gentler powers,
The song, the pencil, and the lyre his own;
Deigned he to live fair pleasure’s thrall alone,
None had more lightly sped the laughing hours.
Better and nobler fate
His, whom we claimed but yesterday,
His, ours no more, his, round whose sacred clay,
the death-mute pages and the heralds wait.
It was too soon to die
Yet, might we count his years by triumphs won,
By wise, and bold, and Christian duties done,
It were no brief eventless history.
This was his princely thought:
With all his varied wisdom to repay
Our trust and love, which on that bridal day
the Daughter of the Isles for Dowry bought.
For that he loved our Queen,
And, for her sake, the people of her love,
Few and far distant names shall rank above
His own, where England’s cherished names are seen.
Could there be closer tie
’TwixtBetwixt us, who, sorrowing, own a nation’s debt,
And her, our own dear Lady, who as yet
Must meet her sudden woe with a tearless eye:
When with a kind relief
Those eyes rain tears, O might this thought employ!
Him whom she loved we loved. We shared her joy,
And will not be denied to share her grief.
Punch.