OUR LATE QUEEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1510, 7 February 1901, Page 31

OUR LATE QUEEN.

CEREMONY AT FROGMGRE

THE FINAL .PROCEEDINGS

LONDON, February 4. En route from the Albert- Memorial Chapel to Frogmore the coffin will be preceded by the Queen’s Company cf the Grenadier Guards, the Duke of Argyle as Governor of Windsor Castle, Highland pipers, the servants of Windsor Castle, and the band of the Grenadier Guards.

Then follow, also preceding the coffin, the Bishop of Winchester as Clerk of the Closet, the Dean of Windsor,' the LordChamberlain (the Earl of Clarendon), and the Lord Steward (the' Earl of Pembroke). The pipers will play;to the gates of the Mausoleum, and follow the clergy and choristers to the building. (Received February 5, 7.55 p.m.) LONDON, February 4.

The fine weather permitted the mourners to walk from "Windsor to Frogmore via the Sovereign’s Drive and the Long Walk. The King, the Kaiser, the Kings of Portugal and Belgium, the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, members of the Royal Family, and most of the foreign Princes participated. Queen Alexandra and all the Princesses were dressed in. the deepest black, and heavily veiled, the Queen leading Prince Edward of York. k -

Thousands of spectators were present until the cortege entered the Frogmore Grounds.

The Bishop of Winchester and the Dean of Windsor officiated. The choir, of St. George’s Chapel rendered music. The scene was memorable for its solemnity and pathos. : (Received February 6, 12.17 a.m.) LONDON. February 5. Detachments of Life Guards and Grenadier Guards watched! the coffin since Saturday. Royalties attended the service held early in the morning. At three in the afternoon bands played Chopin’s “Funeral March.” As thecoffin, on a gun carriage, drawn by eignt horses, moved away the mourners slowly crossed the castle quadrangle, emerging in a few minutes at the George Gateway. Meanwhile the Sevastopol bell in the Round Tower tolled, and artillery in. sh<3 park fired a final salute. There were black masses of silent, motionless onlookers, behind lines of dismounted Guardsmen in scarlet cloaks and white plumes, lining the route, reverently uncovered.

The fact that the mourners walked from. Windsor Castle to Frogmore added si'mpS.io,ity uadi impressiveness to the spectacle.

One of its most touching features was little Prince Edward in a sailor costume. At half-past three the private drive to Frogmore Mausoleum was entered, and the "coffin disappeared from public view. (Guardsmen acted as bearers. The last offices of the dead were strictly private. At the words in the burial service “we commit her body to the ground, ” Lord Edward William Pel-ham-Clinton, Master of the Queen's Household, dropped thrice on the coffin some earth taken from above the Garden of Gethsemane on the occasion of the Kaiser’s late visit to the Holy Land. The choir sang “Sleep Thy Last Sleep.' There was no procession on returning, and the mourners drove to Windsor CastleOne incident at the funeral procession at Windsor was sensational. The horse on the off-side, nearest to the gun-car-riage carrying the coffin, suddenly became restive.

The experienced driver was unable to control it. The animal kicked furiously, and eventually caught its hind legs in the pole bar and was thrown on its knees.

The traces were twice smashed, and the whole team was removed. Another horse, ridden by a standard-bearer, was startled bv the minute guns at Windsor Park, and' plunged furiously close to the King’ and the Kaiser. Two officers of the German- suite rushed forward and seized the bridle, thus averting danger. The Duke of Orleans arrived at Brussels. 1 intending to attend the funeral, but King Edward and the Kaiser intimated that they did. not desire his presence m England. King Leopold objected to the Duke of Orleans’ presence in Brussels, and he left immediately, At Havanna Admiral Wood, the Consuls, and many Cubans attended a memorial service.

Services according to the Greek and Armenian ritual were held throughout tne East. At the funeral service on Saturday there was, by the King’s wish, a succession of solemn anthems. “Man that is Born of Woman," sung to Wesley’s music; f ‘Thou Eoiowest,” to Purcell’s setting; the Lord’s prayer, to Gounod’s music; then an anthem by* Tschaikowsky, the sombre Russian note of melancholy pervading it. SYDNEY, February 5.

All flags were hoisted to the masthead to-dav, and signs of mourning were removed from public buildings.