He soon afterwards retired, for the advantage of some little change of
air, to the house of a relative in the Regent's Park, where he enjoyed
the soothing attentions of his family, and reverently received the
consolations of religion. The public manifested great anxiety to have
the state of his health, and the morning and evening newspapers
contained regular announcements on the subject, as in the case of
persons of the highest distinction. Her Majesty, Prince Albert, also,
with numbers of the nobility, sent daily to enquire concerning him. For
the last day, or possibly two days of his life, he became unconscious,
and slightly delirious--and expired, without apparent pain, on Saturday
afternoon, the 28th June 1845. For a long series of years, the death of
no member of the legal profession had excited a tithe of the public
concern which followed that of Sir William Follett, the
Attorney-general. The bar felt that its brightest light had been almost
suddenly extinguished. Its most gifted members, and those of the
judicial bench, heartily acknowledged the transcendence of his
professional qualifications, and the unassuming peacefulness with which
he had passed through life. Had he lived to occupy the highest judicial
seat--the woolsack--few doubted that, when relieved from the crushing
pressure of private practice, he would have displayed qualities
befitting so splendid a station, and earned a name worthy of ranking
with those of his great predecessors.
His funeral took place on Friday, the 4th of July, at the Temple church.
He was a bencher of the Inner Temple, and his remains repose in the
vault at the south-eastern extremity of the church. For nearly two hours
before the funeral took place, the church--a chaste and splendid
structure--had been filled with members of the bar, and a few others,
all in mourning, and awaiting, in solemn silence, the commencement of
the mournful ceremony. At length the pealing of the organ announced the
arrival of the affecting moment when the body of Sir William
Follett--himself having been not very long before a worshipper in the
church--was being borne within its walls, preceded by the surpliced
choir, chanting the service, in tones which still echo in the ears of
those who heard them. All rose silently, with moistened eyes, and
beating hearts, as they beheld, slowly borne through the aisle, the
coffin which contained the prematurely dead--him whose figure, erect and
graceful in forensic robes, and dignified in gesture, had so recently
stood among them, their cheerful and gifted associate in the anxious
business of life--from whose lips, now closed for ever, had but lately
issued that rich, harmonious voice, whose tones had scarce, even then,
died away! They were bearing him to his long home, with all the solemn
pomp and circumstance which testify the reverence paid to departed
eminence: and when the coffin was placed beside the altar, at the mouth
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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