2-981-917 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Funeral of the Grand Duchess Marie Nicolaievna at St. Petersburg, 1876. 'The view from the Hermitage, as the procession wound slowly round the corner of the Winter Palace...and across the snow-covered Neva to the "Fortress Church," was grand and impressive. The road, according to the invariable Russian custom, was strewn with fir-branches...The clergy...carrying lighted tapers, preceded the bier, which was draped in white and gold, and was drawn by four horses. The Emperor, attended by all the Imperial family, rode immediately behind...It was a bright frosty day, with that sparkle in the air which is peculiar to great cold; and as one's gaze followed the dark train across the vast plain of the frozen river, till it disappeared within the fortress walls, the eye rested at length on that wondrous spire which, shooting up straight and slender as an arrow...glittered in the sun like a golden link connecting earth with heaven'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.