FUNERAL OF LORD MAYO AT DUBLIN

The body of the late Earl of Mayo, Governor-General of India, who was murdered at the Andaman Islands’ penal settlement, on Feb. 8, by a Mussulman fanatic of Cabool, has been brought back to Ireland, and laid in the family vault, near his mansion of Palmerstown, at Naas, in the county of Kildare. It was on Wednesday week, late in the evening, that the Admiralty yacht Enchantress, which conveyed the mortal remains of this lamented nobleman from Suez, arrived in Dublin Bay. Next morning that vessel came up to the city, and lay at Custom House Quay. The landing of the coffin, at noon that day, and the procession with which it was carried through the streets of Dublin, are the subject of our Illustrations. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Earl Spencer, supported by the Marquis of Lorne, who attended in place of the Duke of Argyll, his father, as Secretary of State for India, took the leading part in this mournful ceremony. The arrangements were made by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, with strict regard to all that was due to the rank and high office of the late Lord Mayo. The Lord Lieutenant, in a plain dress, but wearing the star and ribbon of St. Patrick’s Order, with the Marquis of Lorne, in the uniform of a Colonel of the Argyll Artillery Militia, came from the Castle on horseback, attended by an escort of the King’s Dragoon Guards, while three carriages brought the officials and members of the Viceregal household. The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Corporation of Dublin; some of the nobility, the Privy Councillors, the Lord Chancellor, Judges, and officers of State; some of the Irish members of Parliament; the family of the deceased, his little son (now Lord Mayo), and his brothers, with other relatives and friends; a party of 150 tenantry from his estates, attired in white scarves and hat-bands; Major-General Sir T. Steele, and other military officers in high command; the Under-Secretary of State for India, Mr. Grant-Duff, with Sir John Kaye, Secretary to the Political Department, and Sir Erskine Perry, Vice-President of the Council of India; the bearers of the banners of the Order of St. Patrick, and Order of the Star of India; the officers and sailors of H.M.S. Vanguard and H.M.S. Enchantress, were assembled to form the procession. The landing-place was guarded by a hundred rank and file of the Coldstream Guards, with their officers, while the Carabiniers formed behind the Custom House, at the east end of Beresford-place. The bands of several infantry regiments, combined together, were stationed on Eden Quay, near Carlisle Bridge; those of the cavalry regiments were in Westmorland-street. The coffin, which was of great weight, having been lifted from the deck of the steamer by machinery, was placed upon a gun-carriage on the quay alongside, and was covered with the Union Jack as a pall, in token of the military command held by the late Viceroy of India. The procession started immediately afterwards.

The Procession crossing Carlisle Bridge: The Graphic 4 May 1872

The coffin, borne on the gun-carriage, with a bannerol at each side, attended by six mounted aides-de-camp, was preceded by Ulster King of Arms, by the Lord Lieutenant, as chief mourner, with the Marquis of Lorne on horseback, and the mourners belonging to Lord Mayo’s family and personal friends, who were on foot. Behind the coffin were carried the Earl’s coronet on a crimson and gold cushion, borne by Captain Lockwood, and the Earl’s banner. Next came the Lord Lieutenant’s staff and household, the Very Rev. Dr. Dickinson, Dean of the Chapel Royal, the Under-Secretary for India, and his colleagues of that department, in the Windsor uniform; the Major-General commanding the troops, in the absence of Lord Sandhurst; the banner of St. Patrick, borne by the Marquis of Drogheda; that of the Star of India, in charge of the Cork Herald, in the absence of Lord Strathnairne; and the pennon, a long streamer with forked tail, which displayed the ancient crest of the Bourkes of Mayo, with the Union Jack. The military bands, the sailors, and marines, and soldiers, and the tenantry of Lord Mayo, composed the rear of the procession. Its route was over Carlisle Bridge, by Westmorland-street, College-green, Dame-street, Parliament-street, Essex Bridge, the Four Courts, Ellis’s Quay, and Pembroke Quay, to the Esplanade; which line was guarded by the King’s Dragoon Guards, Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Coldstream Guards, 15th Regiment of Infantry, 16th, 20th, and 40th Regiments. The spectacle was very imposing, and its effect was heightened by the music of 160 instruments in perfect accord. The streets and quays were thronged with people, whose demeanour showed their respectful sympathy. Having reached the Esplanade, the procession broke up, and the Lord Lieutenant, with his suite, returned to the Viceregal Lodge. The coffin, still on its carriage, attended by those mourners personally connected with Lord Mayo, and with an escort of the 8th Hussars, travelled along the road to Naas, reaching Palmerstown House that evening before dark. The interment took place on the following day, in the Johnstown Cemetery, at Naas. It was attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The funeral service was performed and a sermon was delivered by the Rev. Maurice de Burgh. This brought to an end the long series of Lord Mayo’s funeral obsequies, which began with the landing of his body at Calcutta.