William IV's Funeral

‘Yesterday I went to the late King [William IV]’s funeral, who was buried with just the same ceremonial as his predecessor this time seven years.  It is a wretched mockery after all, and if I was king, the first thing I would do should be to provide for being committed to the earth with more decency and less pomp.  A host of persons of all ranks and stations were congregated, who ‘loitered through the lofty halls’, chattering and laughing, and with nothing of woe about them but the garb…’

A king who gave £300 for the Scott Monument might have deserved better treatment than Charles Greville witnessed at William’s state funeral.  Greville, like Scott a diarist, though with a more extensive timeframe and scope, recorded this observation on July 9, 1837.