DEATH OF LADY CANNING
Barrackpore, 22nd November 1861.[65]
Lord Canning presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Your Majesty will have heard by the last mail of the heavy blow which has fallen upon Lord Canning. The kindness of your Majesty to Lady Canning has been so invariable and so great that he feels it to be right that your Majesty should receive a sure account of her last illness with as little delay as possible.
The funeral is over. It took place quite privately at sunrise on the 19th. There is no burial-place for the Governor-General or his family, and the cemeteries at Calcutta are odious in many ways: Lord Canning has therefore set a portion of the garden at Barrackpore (fifteen miles from Calcutta) apart for the purpose. It is a beautiful spot—looking upon that reach of the grand river which she was so fond of drawing—shaded from the glare of the sun by high trees—and amongst the bright shrubs and flowers in which she had so much pleasure.
Your Majesty will be glad, but not surprised, to know of the deep respect which has been paid to her memory, not only by the familiar members of the household and intimate friends, who refused to let any hired hands perform the last offices, but by the Civil and Military bodies, and by the community at large. The coffin was conveyed to Barrackpore by the Artillery, and was borne through the Garden by English soldiers.
Lord Canning feels sure that your Majesty will not consider these details as an intrusion. He feels sure of your Majesty's kind sympathy. She loved your Majesty dearly, and Lord Canning is certain that he is doing what would have been her wish in thus venturing to write to your Majesty. In the last connected conversation which he had with her, just before the illness became really threatening, she said that she must write again to the Queen, "for I don't want her to think that it was out of laziness that I was not at Allahabad." The fact is, that she had always intended to be present at the Investiture, and had made all her arrangements to go from Darjeeling to Allahabad for the purpose; but Lord Canning, hearing of the bad state of the roads, owing to the heavy and unseasonable rains, and knowing how fatiguing an additional journey of nearly 900 miles would be, had entreated her to abandon the intention, and to stay longer in the Hills, and then go straight to Calcutta. Whether all might have gone differently if the first plan had been held to, God alone knows. His will has been done.
[Footnote 65:] Received on the 22nd of December, or thereabouts.
Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
A NOBLE RESOLVE