[Illustration: FIG. 48.--_Funeral Car of Nelson._--From a contemporary engraving, reproduced expressly for this publication.]
The obsequies in England of Lord Nelson, which took place on January 9, 1806, were extremely imposing. I transcribe from a contemporary and inedited private letter the following account of it:--"I have just returned from such a sight as will never be seen in London again. I managed at an inconveniently early hour to get me down into the Strand, and so down Norfolk Street to a house overlooking the river. Every post of vantage wherever the procession could be seen was swarming with living beings, all wearing mourning, the very beggars having a bit of crape on their arms. The third barge, which contained the body, was covered with black velvet and adorned with black feathers. In the centre was a viscount's coronet, and three bannerols were affixed to the outside of the barge. In the steerage were six lieutenants of the navy and six trumpets. Clarencieux, King-at-Arms, sat at the head of the coffin, bearing a viscount's coronet on a black velvet cushion. The Royal Standard was at the head of the barge, which was rowed by forty-six seamen from the 'Victory.' The other barges in the cortege were rowed by Greenwich pensioners. The fourth barge contained Admiral Sir Peter Parker, the chief mourner, and other admirals, vice-admirals, and rear-admirals; whilst the Lords of the Admiralty, the Lord Mayor of London, members of the various worshipful Companies, and other distinguished mourners occupied the remaining barges, which were seventeen in number, and were flanked by row-boats, with river fencibles, harbour marines, etc., etc. All, of course, had their colours half-mast high. On the following morning, the 9th, the land procession, which I also contrived to see, started from the Admiralty to pass through the streets of London to St. Paul's, between dense crowds all along the route. This procession was of great length, and included Greenwich pensioners, sailors of the 'Victory,' watermen, judges and other dignitaries of the law, many members of the nobility, public officers, and officers of the army and navy; whilst in it were carried conspicuously the great banner, gauntlets, helmet, sword, etc., of the deceased. The pall was supported by four admirals. Nearly 10,000 military were assembled on this occasion, and these consisted chiefly of the regiments that had fought in Egypt, and participated with the deceased in delivering that country from the power of France. The car in which the body was conveyed was peculiarly magnificent. It was decorated with a carved resemblance of the head and stern of the 'Victory,' surrounded with escutcheons of the arms of the deceased, and adorned with appropriate mottoes and emblematical devices, under an elevated canopy, in the form of the upper part of a sarcophagus, with six sable plumes, and a viscount's coronet in the centre, supported by four columns, representing palm trees, entwined with wreaths of natural laurel and cypress. As it passed, all uncovered, and many wept. I heard a great deal said among the people about 'poor Emma' (Emma, Lady Hamilton), and some wonder whether she will get a pension or not. On the whole, the processions were most imposing, and I am very glad I saw it all, although I am much fatigued at it, from standing about so much and pushing in the crowd, and faint from the difficulty of getting food, every eating-place being so full of people; and surely, though a nation must mourn, equally certain is it that it must also eat."