QUEEN VICTORIA'S SARCOPHAGUS TOO SHALLOW.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 129, 1 June 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

QUEEN VICTORIA'S SARCOPHAGUS TOO SHALLOW.

Perfect as seemed to the public eye" all the arrangements for Queen Victoria's funeral, it appears that there were some serious hitches of which only those in Court circles knevr at the time. The first wan saio—with' what truth I know not—to be the unaccountable omission of a high officer of the Queen's household to give instructions for the construction of her coffin, which necessitated the delay of the obsequies for a few days. Then came the restiveness of the artillery horses at Windsor, that led to the touching spectacle of the sailors drawing the dead Queen to St. George's Chapel. The last and most' serious hitch of all was, says a correspondent of the "St. James' Gazette," discovered only on the night on which the remains arrived at! Windsor Castle. The measurements then taken showed that the coffin was six or eight inches higher than the receptacle in the mausoleum at Frogmore, in which the Prince Consort's remains rested, and where a space was provided for Her Majesty's body. The discovery created great consternation among the Court officials and employees at Windsor. Order* were at once given to have an attempt made to deepen the sarcophagus, and stone hewers were occupied at this work in relays all night. Not Being! accustomed to work in such a hard substance as granite, and the space being exceedingly circumscribed by the Prince Consort's coffin, little progress was made. There' was also the danger of splitting the sides of the sarcophagus. When the granite receptacle had been hollowed out to the utmost extent that was considered safe, it was found that the top of the Queen's coffin would still be six inches above the top, and that consequently it would be impossible to close the sarcophagus. It was decided, as a, temporary expedient, to have slips of wood made, six inches deep, painted to represent granite, and placed on the upper edge of the "walls" of the casquet. On these} temporary supports the massive granite lid was laid. The placing of the wooden extensions and the lowering of the lid on them were tried before the coffin reached the mausoleum, and the arragements were so well made and so carefully carried out that the Eoyal and other personages who stood round the # sarcophagus at what was supposed' to be the final scene of the closing of the casquet were not aware of the hitch.

Since then, it is understood, heavy mouldings of granite, from the same quarry in Aberdeenshire from which the stones for the sarcophagus were hewn over thirty years ago, have been ordered by the King. These additions to the sarcophagus have been shaped and polished in Aberdeen, and when completed they will be fixed into the casquet, which will then be permanently sealed. It will consequently stand six inches higher than it did originally.