“The funeral of Nelson was a signal day in the annals of S. Paul’s. The Cathedral opened wide her doors to receive the remains of the great Admiral, followed, it might almost be said, by the whole nation as mourners. The death of Nelson in the hour of victory, of Nelson whose victories at Aboukir and Copenhagen had raised his name above any other in our naval history, had stirred the English heart to its depths, its depths of pride and sorrow. The manifest result of that splendid victory at Trafalgar was the annihilation of the fleets of France and Spain, and, it might seem, the absolute conquest of the ocean, held for many years as a subject province of Great Britain. The procession, first by water, then by land, was of course magnificent, at least as far as prodigal cost could command magnificence. The body was preceded to S. Paul’s by all that was noble and distinguished in the land, more immediately by all the Princes of the blood and the Prince of Wales.”

This account is taken from Dean Milman’s Annals of S. Paul’s. The Dean, then a youth, was present at the funeral, and could remember the solemn effect of the sinking of the coffin to its resting place, and the low wail of the sailors who bore and encircled the remains of their admiral.

The monument, by Flaxman, originally stood at the entrance to the Choir. When the Choir was extended westward in 1870, it was removed to its present much more favourable position in the South Transept.