My dear I send a line to tell you it was very nice and simple and touching and they were so sorry for the cause of your absence and the old lady bid me tell you she felt your wish to come so strongly and was very very glad I had not let you.1 There were about 20 or 30 altogether. I knew but few of them but will jot down those I knew the names of. A quiet little village and a nice old old church cleaned and repaired not offensively and pretty quiet churchyard. Old Mrs Rossetti (84)2 and Christina3 wonderfully calm and quiet. Wm Rossetti agitated now and then and it was touching to see the old lady led between him and Xtina - and there were a lot of flowers sent to put on the bier and the village people gathered round very reverently and the parson was a reverent cultivated like man and it was pleasant to feel that there was a reality of regard that had gathered all there. Leyland came to the train to meet you and was very sorry but said it was so wise and right. Altho the sun shone it was very cold in the church and I was glad you were not there just then - it was over by 4.30 and the train came at 4.40 but most of them are waiting for a later train and going to dine at Westgate. I wish I could come out in the morning but I expect [Mamma] up and must wait on her. I shall write more steadily tonight. Ever Yours affy W.G. Leyland, and Sheilds [sic],4 and a Dr [Hueffer]5 and Watts,6 Seddon7 and Boyce. 1 EBJ was too ill to attend. 2 Mrs Gabriele Rossetti, née Frances Polidori (1800-86), DGR's mother. 3 Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-94), DGR's younger sister. 4 The artist F.J. Shields (1833-1911), who had drawn DGR on his deathbed (version in Bancroft collection, Wilmington, Delaware). 5 Dr Franz HiifFer (1845-89), German music critic, who setded in Britain, changed his name to Francis Hueffer, and married Ford Madox Brown's daughter, Catherine. 6 Theodore Watts, later Watts-Dunton (1832-1914), intimate friend of DGR in his last vears. 7 John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906), architect and designer.