trains. Doubts were, unhappily, dispelled by the receipt of official and private telegrams announcing the sad intelligence. There was an unusual unanimity of feeling of sorrow expressed; and, throughout the following week, the shops, almost without an exception, were partially closed as had been sometimes the case on the death of a greatly revered benefactor of our own locality. Also the flags at the coastguard stations, the Volunteer Depôt those belonging to private persons, were raised to only half mast, and all public meeting and amusements for the week that had been advertised, including the dinner to Capt. Lucas-Shadwell, were postponed. The St. Leonards Gazette on the following Saturday had the following article on the national bereavement:-
“Never within the memory of living man was there sorrow so great and gloom so universal as that which has befallen our beloved Queen and her people through the death of the Prince Consort. By this sad event her Majesty has suffered the greatest earthly bereavement and the country has sustained an irreparable loss – a loss so deeply felt that even strong men have bowed down with intense grief, and the nation at large has evinced the utmost solicitude for the royal widow. The only parallel we know of is the melancholy death of the Princess Charlotte and her child in 1817, when the nation was similarly plunged into sudden sorrow [as described in an earlier volume of Local History], and when, as now, there was locally and generally but one feeling of intense regret.
In this country, men usually attain eminence either as statesmen or warriors; but the late Prince Albert was not a statesman, nor did he ever enter the battle-field. He had, however, in other and more peaceful spheres – by his support of the arts and sciences, by his furthering the cause of popular education and every scheme calculated for the promotion and advancement of human happiness; by the manner in which he had contributed to the success of the great International Exhibition of 1851; by his exertions in connection with the intended exhibition of 1862; by his honourable abstinence from all political partisanships, under every change, every trial, and every temptation; by giving on every occasion good and constitutional advice to her Majesty; and last, though not least, by being one of the best of husbands and fathers, and a good exemplary member of society – won for himself a renown and reputation that had endeared him to all classes in the country. Our beloved Queen has lost an excellent husband, endeared to her by upwards of twenty years of affectionate attention; his family have lost a father, kind adviser and friend; and society one of its most exemplary members. During a period of over twenty years in this country the lamented prince-
