Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/422

 35S THE OBSEQUIES OF QUEEN KATHARINE OF ARKAGON the 7tli of Januarv, and all the preparations for the funeral were ordered to be completed b}'" the 25th of the month. They were, indeed, of so costly and elaborate a nature that it would have been difficult to finish them sooner. In the first place, provision was to be made for the bowellin.f^, sering and enclosing the corpse in lead. When Queen Eleanor, of Castile, departed, as we read in the Ro3al wardrobe accounts for the year, her body was stufled with barley. Queen Katharine's was ordered to be sered, trannnelled, leaded and chested with spices and other things thereunto appertaining. When Henry VIII. himself died, commandment was given for wrapping his corpse in cere cloth of many folds, over the fine cloth of rains and velvet, surely bound and trammelled with cords of silk. The chandeler received instructions to prepare a proper number of lights to be employed round the corpse during the time it remained at Kimbolton Castle, or in the next church or chapel where it rested ; and he was ordered to " execute all exequies and ceremonies for the time." There is no mention of the route taken by the funeral cortege, but it most probal)ly lay by the nearest line, which was through Huntingdon, IStilton and Yaxley. Particular directions were given for the picjiaration of the hearses or canopies that rested over the body, and were borne in the procession. There were to be two of these — one with five princii)al.s of main divisions of the entire framework filled with lights, which was to be placed over the corpse in the church where the funeral made its first halt ; the other, " a sumptuous hearse," with nine principals and lights accord- ingly, to be set in the church or monastery where the body was interred. These hearses were commonly very elaborate archi- tectural compositions, exhibiting the characteristic features of the period, such as canopies, images, buttresses and finials, probably all made of wax on a wooden framework. The issue roll of 44 Eldward III. nunlions the cost of Queen I*liilipj>a's, in various items, as amounting to 1 (IG/., besides other large charges for lights l)urning round the l)ody in Westminster Abljey. Jhit it is unncccss.-iry to ijuoto these early illustrations, which seem to hv. of a like character, not only at the obs('(|uics of the itoyal family, as at that of John l)ukc of IJcdfoid. but of several noble families who were ii(.t .'illicd to the Cidwn. 'j: I'^dwaid I., with his