the King's Household, proceeded to an examination of the body. The result was, (according to the Times' report), that his Majesty's disorder was an extensively diseased organization of the beart; this was the primary disorder, although dropsical symptoms subsequently supervened; and, in fact, there was a general breaking-up of his Majesty's constitution. The heart was uncommonly enlarged, but there was no effusion of water in the thoracic cavity. The valves of the heart had become partially ossified, and there was a considerable degree of fatness about that organ generally. The liver was not diseased; the lungs were, we understand, ulcerated, and there were dropsical symptoms of the skin in various parts of the body, but not of a nature necessarily to produce death. They appeared rather the eventual consequence of the impeded circulation of the blood, owing to the disorganization of the functions of the heart. There were also indications of disease of the bones, arising from the primary disorder indeed, the debilitated circulation of the vital fluid had every where left the traces of its long existence.

The torture which the King suffered during the paroxysms of his disorder must have been excruciating; since it is said that his moans were at times even

heard by the sentinels on duty in the quadrangle, the stations of two of whom were removed some weeks since to a greater distance, in consequence of the soldiers having mentioned the sounds which they overheard. Alas! what must have been the melancholy of their meditations, in the stilly hour of their midnight watch, broken only by the moans of a dying monarch; for

Never alone

Did the King sigh, but with a general groan.

From the irregular, and at times languid circulation which the disorder of the heart had occasioned, his Majesty has, within the last three months, found temporary relief from a regulated use of some liqueurs; mixed Curaçoa, Eau de Cologne, weak brandy and water, were (under regimen) his general liquids. No hope of recovery is said to have been entertained either by His Majesty or his physicians, for the last seven weeks; the struggle of the royal sufferer was hard, but he was daily sinking under it, until death relieved him at last by the pure exhaustion of the system.

For innumerable incidents and changes which are consequent upon this melan

choly event, the reader is referred to the public journals, which have reported the particulars with great minuteness.* One of them describes Windsor Castle as an

immense solitude. "No person except on special business was admitted within the inner portals; no public functionaries were seen without; and the few attendants who passed in and out were in deep mourning. The royal standard is lowered half-mast high, and every window of this magnificent pile is closed.' Indeed, the terrace and such apartments as were usually shown to the public, were closed some days previous to the death of the King; but, to compensate for the disappointment of visiters, the royal cottage was open to their inspection.

At this moment, a distant view of Windsor Castle would sadden the lover of meditation, even were he amidst the joyous scenes of the surrounding country. How deep then will be his melancholy on approaching the vast pile, and associating its new-sprung glories with the memory of the Monarch at whose fiat they rose in all the pride of modern art; till Death

Came at the last, and with a little pin
Bored through his castle wall, and-farewell
King!

Mute will be the spectator's woe, and the poetsilent his sorrow; while he will say with

All flesh is grass, and all its glory fades
Like the fair flower dishevell'd in the wind;
Riches have wings, and Grandeur is a dream;
The man we celebrate must find a tomb,
And we that worship him ignoble graves.

ROYAL FUNERALS.

WILLIAM THE FIRST was buried at Caen in Normandy, in a monastery of which he was the founder; but a delay was made by the proprietor of the land, who demanded payment for it before he would suffer the corpse to be interred.

Henry the First died near Rouen, and was embalmed and brought to England, and buried at Reading.

Henry the Fifth died of a pleurisy, August 31, 1422, at Rouen, and was brought thence to London, with a magnificence suitable to the glory of his life. He was buried at Westminster. James King of Scotland, accompanied the procession as chief mourner; and all the nobility, princes of the blood, &c. attended the interment of the royal remains. On the 14th of the following

simile of the Gazette, officially announcing the The only record we have copied, is the fac

mournful event.

November, the infant son of the deceased monarch was carried in great state from the Tower, through the streets of the city, on his mother's lap, in an open chair, to the Parliament then sitting at Westminster, who recognized his right to the throne.

Henry the Sixth was buried at Chertsey." In the eleventh volume of the Fœdera (says Brayley) is a record of his funeral expenses, which amounted but to 331. 6s. 8d., in which sum are included the fees of a priest, charges for linen cloth of Holland, and spices; fees to the torch-bearers who attended the corpse to St. Paul's, and thence to Chertsey; money paid to two soldiers of Calais, who watched the corpse; and for the hire of barges from London to Chertsey; and 87. 12s. 3d. distributed to different religious orders.

Queen Mary was buried in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, with great pomp. The Bishop of Westminster preached her funeral sermon, praising the late reign, and lamented the present state with such freedom that he was apprehended and confined.

Queen Elizabeth was buried at Westminster on the 28th of April, 1603. "At which time (says Stowe) that citie was surcharged with multitudes of all sorts of people in their streets, houses, windows, leads, and gutters, that came to see the obsequies; and when they beheld her statue or picture lying upon the coffin, set forth in royal robes, having a crown upon the head thereof, and a ball and sceptre in either hand, there was such a generall syghing, groaning, and weeping, as the like hath not beene seene or knowne in the memorie of man, neyther doth any historie mention any people, time, or state, to make the like lamentation for the death of their soverayne." This funeral cost 17,4287.

In a vault, under St. George's Chapel, at Windsor, are interred, Henry the Eighth, his Queen Jane Seymour, Charles the First, and a daughter of Queen Anne.

On the 13th of March, 1789, the workmen employed in repairing the chapel, discovered the vault of King Edward IV. The body, inclosed in a leaden and wooden coffin, measured six feet three inches in length, appeared reduced to a skeleton. The bottom of the coffin was covered with a muddy liquor, about three inches deep, of a strong saline taste. Near this was found a wooden coffin, supposed to have contained the body of his queen, who died

Afterwards removed to Windsor, and thence to Westminster.

about three years after the king in con finement, at Bermondsey Abbey, and is supposed to have been secretly interred. On the sides of this vault were inscribed, in characters resembling those of the times, "Edward IV.," with several names, probably those of the workmen employed at the funeral. The tomb of this king is fronted with touchstone; over it is a beautiful monument, composed of steel, said to have been the work of Quintin Matsys.

"The grave unites; where ev'n the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' opprest."

РОРЕ. P. T. W.

QUEEN ELIZABETH PROCLAIMED, AND HER RECEPTION BY THE CITIZENS OF LONDON. (For the Mirror.)

WHEN the death of Queen Mary was announced to the parliament by the chancellor, so great was the joy that an involuntary burst of acclamation pervaded the assembly, and the people without, as if instinctively, instantly caught the sound, and repeated shouts of

Long live Queen Elizabeth." On the same day she was proclaimed at the usual stations in the city, amidst the loudest acclamations, as if from a prophetic feeling of the national prosperity and glory that would result from a reign so auspiciously commenced. Elizabeth was at Hatfield when her sister expired, but she arrived in London on the second day afterwards, accompanied by a numerous train of lords and ladies. For a few days she continued at the Charter House, then the residence of the Lord North. On the 28th of November she proceeded to the Tower, the magistracy and the city companies attending the procession; when she entered that fortress as a sovereign, and amidst the heartfelt joy of an immense multitude, she could not help adverting to the different circumstances of her situation only a few years before, when she had been sent thither as a prisoner. In the fervour of her soul (says her biographer) she fell upon her knees and expressed her warmest acknowledgments to Almighty God for the deliverance which had been afforded her from the most cruel persecution, a deliverance, she said, no less miraculous than that which Daniel had received from the den of lions. On the 5th of December, 1558, she removed to Somerset Place, and from thence to her palace at Whitehall. She was crowned on the 15th of January, 1559. "Three days (says Stowe) be

fore this she was conveyed by water to the Tower, attended by the Lord Maior of London and his brethren, the Aldermen in their barges, and all the Craftes of the Citie in their barges, richly decked with targets and banners of every mysterie." On the 4th she rode through the City of Westminster in great state, amidst the accustomed display of pageantry and expensive magnificence. In Cheapside the Recorder presented her with one thousand marks in gold, in a purse of crimson velvet, in token of the affectionate loyalty of her faithful citizens, to a sovereign whose prosperity they wished, and whose protection they implored. The Queen, in a short speech, returned thanks for the gift, and told her people that "should occasion require, she would be found ready to spill her blood for their safety." P. T. W.

Retrospective Gleanings.

BURIAL PLACES OF THE ENGLISH KINGS AND QUEENS.

At Westminster.

Henry III. born 1207, died Nov. 16, 1272.

Edward I. born 1239, died July 7, 1307

Charles I. born 1600, died January 30, 1649.

George III. born 1738, died January 29, 1820.

At Fontevralt.

Henry II. born 1133, died July 6, 1189. Richard I. born 1157, died April 6, 1199.

At various places.

Winchester, William II. born 1057, died August 2, 1100.

Caen, William I. born 1027, died September, 9, 1087.

Reading, Henry I. born 1068, died December 1, 1133.

Feversham, Stephen, born 1105, died October 25, 1154.

Worcester, John, born 1166, died October 19, 1216.

Gloucester, Edward II. born 1284, died January 25, 1327.

Canterbury, Henry IV. born 1367, died March 20, 1413.

Leicester, Richard III. born 1443, died August 22, 1485.

St. Germaine, James II. born 1633, died September 16, 1692.

Hanover, George I. born 1660, died June 11, 1727.

Richard II. born 1366, died September 29, 1399.

Henry V. born 1389, died August 31, 1422.

Henry VI. born 1421, died March 4, 1461.

Henry VII. born 1456, died April 22, 1509.

Edward VI. born 1537, died July 6, 1553.

Mary I. born 1516, died Nov. 17, 1558
Elizabeth, born 1533, died March 24,

1603.

BOATS.

(To the Editor of the Mirror.) HAVING witnessed a most spirited contest a week or two ago at Greenwich, between some very able scullers of that place (the prize being won by that justly celebrated and handsome wager-boat, "The Premier,") it has since struck me, that a few observations upon the present method of building the wager boats, employed upon such occasions, would not be unacceptable to a great portion of your readers; and the more xo, as the rowing matches above bridge, and the skilful manner in which they are conducted, have of late induced a great number of the young men of the metropolis to try their skill in rowing, to the manifest improvement of their health, and, if the truth were known, their morals too. Notwithstanding the reigning passion for " boating," there are but few whose taste is sufficiently modernized, sufficiently dovetailed in the spirit and fashion of the day, to enable them to appreciate those peculiarities which are so essential to what is called "a first-rate wherry."

The principle upon which wherries are built is so different now to what it

used to be, that, perhaps, no art has undergone a greater or more thorough change. Ten years ago, wherries were built with a twenty feet keel, and six feet stem, but the stem was so placed as to add only two feet to the length of the boat. Upon this principle Masterman's famous wherry was built, and although few have outstripped her in velocity, yet she never was considered much to look at; the abrupt rising of her stem, and the curve that it formed, imparting to her any thing rather than the appearance of a wager boat: her fame lived and died with the materials of which she was formed.

According to the present method, the keel is nearly of the same length, but the stem is eight or nine feet long, and this stem is so fixed as to add nearly the whole of its length to the boat. The most eminent boat-builders agree that this principle is the most likely to give life and swiftness to the wherry, and render it more susceptible of motion, whether it be in a straight line, curve line, or circle; as it is sharper forward, and although less sea-worthy, it has what is technically called a greater rake, and consequently requires less force to propel it through the water.

To persons unaccustomed to view these modern-built boats, their long stems or noses appear preposterous, just as a long waisted coat would appear to a gentleman who had been shut out of the fashionable world since the year 1818, when dandies were distinguished by their sparrow tails, and the buttons of their coats being nearly under their arm-pits; but however preposterous such changes may appear to that too frequently, purblind animal man, those who can discover a real improvement, will not fail at once to see, how much more calculated for the purposes of wagering these boats are than such as were built ten or fifteen years ago.

Upon this principle, the "Premier' was built-she is about twenty-eight feet long, and many persons suppose, from her great length, that she requires a longer period of time to turn her round than a shorter boat would: the inference is incorrect by looking at her keel, which is no longer than those of shorter boats, it will be observed that her additional length is thrown into her stem or nose; and consequently can in no way retard her motions: for instance, if Mr.

* in turning his head round, as it is now fixed, with its present nasal promontory and other appendages, con* This literary Demiculverin, I am informed,

has a very short nose.

sumes a second, it would take him no longer, if a nose like unto that of Slawkenbergius were attached to it; the time consumed in the rotation of any thing (according to my geometrical information) being in all cases regulated by the axis upon which the figure turns, and not the vertex or extremity of it. Now, you will perceive by this argument, that boats built upon the new principle, notwithstanding their length, are by no means less adapted to perform their circumvolutions than those built upon the old system; but without troubling your readers with any further argument, I will leave it to the high reputation which these boats have so deservedly established, as a sufficient answer to every objection that may be made to their great length. As to the Premier, she is so notoriously successful, so transcendently beautiful, that I can with propriety say, that Bucephalus was not a faster horse; Argus, à finer dog; or Helen, a handsomer woman, than she is a boat; in saying this, of course, I demur to the recent discovery of some sagacious philosopher-" that Helen had but one eye.' ""

The building of boats is somewhat like the building of organs; as it is impossible to answer for the tone of the one, so it is impossible, by any watchfulness, care or skill, to insure swiftness to the other. It is not unfrequently the case, when two boats are built by the same hand, from the same model, and with the same attention, that one will prove a very fast boat, and the other not;this appears to be the alchemy of boatbuilding-and thus it is, when a boat has proved a fast one, that she is hailed with so much enthusiasm. Among the vast number that are daily to be seen on the river Thames, perhaps there are none more deservedly admired and praised than the Premier, the Monarch, and B. C--s.

the Shark. Deptford.