The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 3 of 4Wilson, Robert
History
The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 3 of 4
Wilson, Robert
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901; Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
On the 18th of December the Queen emerged from her seclusion to
superintend the removal of the Prince Consort’s remains from St.
George’s Chapel to the Mausoleum at Frogmore Park. This sepulchral
edifice had been built by her special directions as a monument of the
affection and reverence which she and her children bore to the dead
Prince. It is cruciform in plan, the arms of the cross radiating from a
central cell, lit by three semi-circular windows in the clerestory, to
the cardinal points of the compass. Polished shafts of cold grey granite
decorate the outside of the building, and on an octagonal roof of copper
a gilded cross gleams on a square-set tower. The transepts are also
square, and lit by a clerestory corresponding with that in the central
cell. Monoliths of Aberdeen and Guernsey granite flank the steps of the
entrance porch, and the whole exterior is faced with polished granites
and parti-coloured masonry. When the Prince’s remains were laid there,
the interior--remarkable for its almost Oriental richness of subdued
colour and for the splendour of its golden decorations--was unfinished,
nor was Marochetti’s recumbent statue of the Prince, which was to be
placed over his sarcophagus, completed.
[Illustration: REINHARDSBRUNN, NEAR GOTHA.]
Early on the morning of the 18th of December the remains of the Prince
were taken from St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, to Frogmore, the ceremony
being conducted in extreme privacy. The coffin was first placed in a
hearse, which was followed by the Prince of Wales and Prince Louis of
Hesse in a mourning coach. The Lord Chamberlain, the Dean of Windsor,
Sir Charles Phipps, Colonel Grey, and other officials and domestics of
the Royal Household formed the rest of the procession. The ceremony was
very brief, simple, and solemn, and when the coffin was placed within
the sarcophagus, the Princes laid upon it floral wreaths, which the
Princesses had woven with their own hands for their father’s grave.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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