THE FUNERAL OF LORD LURGAN

The mortal remains of the late lamented Lord Lurgan were, on Wednesday, conveyed to their final resting place, in the family vault, in Shankill burying-ground, near Lurgan, by a sorrowing troop of his Lordship's relatives, friends, and tenantry. The funeral took place at half-past ten, a.m. precisely, at which hour the coffin was borne from his Lordship's residence by six of the most respectable tenants upon the estate, who were relieved, as occasion required, during the sad procession, by two other companies of six each, the bearers thus numbering eighteen in all, dressed in scarves and hat-bands. The chief mourners: Colonel Close, of Drumbanagher, the Honourable Mr. Bligh, John Brownlow, Esq., and Charles Douglass, Esq., of Grace Hall. After these walked the clergymen resident upon the estate, and the medical gentlemen who were in attendance upon his lordship, in mourning, also wearing scarves and hatbands. It is unnecessary to say, that the shops in the town were closed from an early hour in the morning, and that no other evidence of the sincere sorrow universally felt for the loss of a kind landlord, and faithful guardian of the interests of the locality, was wanting.

It was one of his Lordship's last wishes, that the funeral should be conducted in the most private manner consistent with propriety, and that not one of his tenantry should put himself to the least expense or inconvenience by attending it. Conscious of the thoughtfulness which dictated this request, at a season when display would appear so discordant with the general distress, and which so pathetically proved that the ruling principle of Lord Lurgan's life, an affectionate concern for the welfare of all who were connected with him, by the nearest as well as the remotest ties was strong in death, the wish was received as a command; and, consequently, the tenantry did not assemble very numerously, though a large proportion of the inhabitants of Lurgan and its vicinity were gathered in the streets as the un-ostentatious procession moved by. The melancholy ceremonial over, the mourners returned to their homes, deeply impressed with the solemnity of a scene rendered infinitely more touching by the suddenness of the late Lord's demise, and by the extent of the bereavement which deprived his afflicted relatives of so dear a friend, his tenantry of so indulgent a landlord, and the poor of so benevolent a protector.

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