Nelson & His World

There was a discussion on AN some time ago about the mechanism used to lower Nelson's coffin to the crypt of St Paul's at the climax of his funeral ceremony. It wasn't the hydraulic system by Bramah and Co., as that was installed some years after Nelson's funeral. Ian, (my husband - engineer) speculated that they might have used a 'scissor-jack' - something like one of the expanding rise-and-fall devices used to raise food etc. into aircraft.

I acquired a copy of the Lady's Magazine for January 1806 which contains a comprehensive account of Nelson's funeral and a specially commissioned fold-out engraving. The narrator mentions in his report that:

'a frame protruded from the grave by machinery in the vault, upon which the coffin was to rest whilst the remaining part of the burial service was performing......at thirty-three minutes and a half past five precisely, the coffin was lowered into the grave....'

This might have been a scissor-jack; in that case, the coffin could have been lowered just a short way below the floor of the cathedral, just out of sight and the interment completed later. Ian thinks that a pulley system might have been too big a risk. It would have been dreadful if one rope had broken and left the sarcophagus dangling in mid-air.



Another interesting observation was the writer's comment about the order of mourners in the funeral procession. He expresses regret that the seamen of Victory were not placed next to the hearse:

'We could wish to have seen in this place the seamen of the Victory, and the Greenwich pensioners, who went in the first part of the procession. They bore the most striking marks of deep and unfeigned sorrow; and their recent sevice made them be seen with veneration. If they had been stationed near the hearse, a most sublime and affecting association must immediately be impressed on every mind, from what was certainly very impressive at is was, but not so much as it might have been made by this arrangement.'

He concludes with a poem he wrote on arriving home after the ceremony. It is so embarrassingly awful that I shan't post it on the poetry thread.

Anna

I know for certain that initially the coffin was only lowered part way to the bottom of the crypt.

For quite some time (weeks I believe!) people could pay to see the coffin suspended several feet above the floor of the crypt.

This supports the logic of it being some sort of scissor jack.

Some while back I found the date when the coffin was finally placed in the grave. I will see if I can pull it out later.

(And in case anyone doesn't know this - in the same grave are Nelson's brother William, William's wife, and William's son - who would have inherited the title if he had not predeceased his father.)

MB

Anna,

One can only have some sympathy with the writer's second comment, on the placing of the seaman and Greenwich Pensioners in the order of precedence. In actual fact I believe that, almost unbelievable as it may seem, the naval personnel involved in the whole funeral procedings were almost overwhelmed by the numbers from the army taking part, both in the procession itself and lining the streets.

I think I read that it was only through the intervention from the navy that the 'senior service' had the involvement that it did. I wonder which thoughtless bureacrat came up with that one?

I couldn't put my hand on that date when Nelson was actually interred in the crypt of St Paul's.

But as I was rummaging through some papers I came across another item which I remember finding very interesting.

i.e. At the Duke of Wellington's funeral his coffin was also lowered through the cathedral floor in the same way as Nelson's. But by then the Nelson "sargophagus" was directly under of the centre of the dome.

So it was necessary to remove the coronet and cushion from the top of the sarcophagus and lower Wellington's coffin directly on to the top of it.

There it remained for some while.

They then constructed an "inclined plane", or slope, to slide the coffin down the remaining distance to the floor of the crypt.

Amazing!!

MB

In 1806 the Naval Chronicle described Nelson’s coffin being lowered into the crypt ‘by balance-weight’:
The Monthly Mirror also said ‘it solemnly descended by balance weight’.

This suggests a system of pulleys to me. It was only the coffin that was lowered, not the sarcophagus, so I wouldn't have thought the weight was a problem. Although his body was actually contained in three coffins, which would indeed have been heavy, it had been carried onto the platform during the service.

According to the Literary Gazette, ‘the machine for interring Lord Nelson’ was invented by Mr Wyatt, and the same machine was used in 1827 at St George’s Chapel at Windsor for the funeral of the Duke of York. James Wyatt was the surveyor-general of the Board of Works, responsible for Nelson's funeral, and the carpentry contract was awarded to his brother Samuel Wyatt. Both were architects responsible for many public and private works. The same machinery was also used at St George's Chapel for other royal funerals, including the king’s, during the ten or twenty years prior to 1827. Royal funerals at St George’s Chapel have continued to use machinery for lowering the coffin into the vault, including George VI’s funeral, and it would be interesting to know what machinery is currently installed!

At St Paul’s in 1852, Wellington’s coffin was lowered by chains and pulleys:

Many thanks for that, Tony. Ian will be fascinated. (Currently out for a spin in a friend's restored sports car. I think he said a Singer (?) - can that be right?)

Incidentally, wouldn't there have been creaks and groans from the chains and pulleys? Drowned by the splendid music, I suppose.