34 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813, 



found to be loose, and, without 

 any difficulty, was taken up and 

 held to view. It was quite wet, 

 and gave a greenish red tinge to 

 paper, and to linen which touched 

 it. The back part of the scalp was 

 entirely perfect, and had a re- 

 markable fresh appearance; the 

 pores of the skin being more dis- 

 tinct, as they usually are when 

 soaked in mixture : and the ten- 

 dons and ligaments of the neck 

 were of considerable substance and 

 firmness. The hair was thick at 

 the back part of the head, and in 

 appearance nearly black. A por- 

 tion of it, which has since been 

 cleaned and dried, is of a beautiful 

 dark brown colour : that of the 

 beard was a redder brown. On the 

 back part of the head, it was not 

 more than an inch in length, and 

 had probably been cut so short for 

 the convenience of the executioner, 

 or, perhaps, by the piety of friends 

 soon after death, in order to fur- 

 nish memorials of the unhappy 

 king. 



" On holding up the head, to 

 examine the place of separation 

 from the body, the muscles of the 

 neck had evidently retracted them- 

 selves considerably, and the fourth 

 cervical vertebra was found to be 

 cut through its substance, trans- 

 versely, leaving the surfaces of the 

 divided portions perfectly smooth 

 and even, an appearance which 

 could have been produced only by 

 a heavy blow, inflicted with a very 

 sharp instrument, and which fui-- 

 nished the last proof wanting, to 

 identify king Charles the first. 



" After this examination of the 

 head, which served every purpose 

 in view, and without examining 

 the body below the neck, it was 

 immediately restored to its situa- 



tion, the coffin was soldered op 

 again, and the vault closed. 



" Neither of the other coffins 

 had any inscription upon them. 

 The larger one, supposed on good 

 grounds to contain the remains of 

 king Henry VIII. measured six 

 feet ten inches in length, and had 

 been enclosed in an elm one, two 

 inches in thickness ; but this was 

 decayed, and lay in small frag- 

 ments near it. The leaden coffin 

 appeared to have been beaten in by 

 violence about the middle ; and a 

 considerable opening in that part 

 of it, exposed the mere skeleton of 

 the king. Some beard remained 

 upon the chin, but there was no- 

 thing to discriminate the person- 

 age contained in it. 



" The smaller coffin, understood 

 to be that of queen Jane Seymour, 

 was not touched ; mere curiosity 

 not being considered by the Prince 

 Regent, as a sufficient motive for 

 disturbing these remains. 



" On examining the vault with 

 some attention, it was found that 

 the wall, at the west end, had, at 

 some period or other, been partly 

 pulled down, and repaired again, 

 not by regular masonry, but by 

 fragments of stones and bricks, 

 put rudely and hastily together 

 without cement. 



30. Letters from Constantino- 

 ple mention the following unfortu- 

 nate incident : — Mr. Levy, an 

 English gentleman, well known 

 and highly esteemed in Russia, was 

 lately drowned in the Black Sea-, 

 together with count Fogessiera, a 

 Piedmontese nobleman, two or- 

 derly dragoons of the 20th regi- 

 ment, and a servant, on their route 

 to join sir Robert Wilson, with 

 the rest of the crew of the vessel, 

 one Greek only excepted. Mr» 



