Nelson & His World

LINES OCCASIONED BY A CIRCUMSTANCE THAT OCCURRED AT LORD NELSON'S FUNERAL.

[In the funeral procession of Lord Nelson, some sailors of the Victory bore the Great St. George's ensign of that ship, and, as the coffin was let down into the grave, laid it over as a kind of pall. When the ceremony had finished, some young men, standing near the tomb, actuated by an impulse of the moment, and anxious to possess some memorial of so proud a trophy, seized the flag, and tore a part of it off, a small piece of which was given to the author of the following lines.]

Relic of Albion’s flag! whose waving pride
Late swept triumphant o'er th' Atlantic tide ;
On Victory's stern display'd Britannia's sway,
And mark'd her peerless oh the wat’ry way ;
No more, with triumph beaming in his eye,
Shall godlike Nelson see thy glories fly !
In Death's cold urn his sacred ashes rest;
Quench'd is that fire which warm'd his noble breast;
That spirit's fled which aw'd Iberia's pride—
It saw France humbled, then to glory hied.

To earth alone he's lost: his mighty soul,
Bursting the mould'ring body's weak control,
In deathless joys, which fame immortal gives,
With sages, heroes, patriots, angels, lives.

And thou, dear relic ! (in an after age
Some Briton musing o'er th' historic page)
Thou shalt, (if haply thy remains he view)
Again be moisten'd with a briny dew.

Chelsea, Feb. 1806. O.C.T.

Source: The Monthly Mirror, Volume 21, 1806, p346

The " Victory," with the remains of the ever-to-be-Iamented Nelson, arrived off Sheerness, Sunday, December 22, 1805.

The body was placed the following morning on board the "Chatham" yacht, proceeding on her way to Greenwich. The coffin, covered with an ensign, was placed on deck. Tuesday she arrived at Greenwich; the body, still being in the coffin made of the wreck of " L'Orient," was then enveloped in the colours of the "Victory," bound round by a piece of rope, and carried by sailors, part of the crew of the " Victory," to the Painted Hall, where preparations were made for the lying in state; the days appointed for which were Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, January 5, 6, and 7, 1806, and to which all due effect was given. Wednesday, January 8, the first day's procession by water took place, and the remains were removed from Greenwich to Whitehall, and from thence to the Admiralty, with all possible pomp and solemnity. This procession of barges, &c. was nearly a mile long, minute guns being fired during its progress. The banner of emblems was borne by Captain Hardy, Lord Nelson's captain. The body was deposited that night in the captain's room at the Admiralty, and attended by the Rev. John Scott.