Death, Transfer from France, Funeral and Interment

[sirhon11234]

Wow thats amazing.

[BeatrixFan]

Well it's an easy experiment to do actually. If you put a square of milk chocolate in a box with holes in the lid and check on it in a few months, it'll have gone white and stale. If you do the same in an airtight box, the chocolate will stay the same and will still be edible. It's the lead that serves this effect on a corpse. Without the lead, heat inside the coffin begins to decay the body, the wood decomposes and then the elements can get to the body which begins to decompose quite quickly. The lead keeps the body cool and suspends natural decomposition - hence perfectly preserved corpses which can then be passed off as 'incorrupt' or 'saintly'.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by GillW

Customs do not normally check things on the way OUT of a country.

I can assure you, from experience, that any box or coffin containing a corpse being flown back to Britain is opened before it is put on any RAF, ordinary or chartered plane, royal or not. It is checked by customs before it is loaded. The glass window was allowed for Diana, for some unknown reason.

Every country checks your baggage and person when leaving the country, a box/coffin is no different.

[BeatrixFan]

Well I guess it would have been considered disrespectful to open the coffin at two customs points considering the public mood at the time and so the glass window allowed her to remain undisturbed whilst at the same time being practical.

[Skydragon]

I must look suspicious, customs always checks my bags and person when I am checked in!

[BeatrixFan]

Do you travel with a coffin though?

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by BeatrixFan

Do you travel with a coffin though?

As little as possible!

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by BeatrixFan

Well it's an easy experiment to do actually. If you put a square of milk chocolate in a box with holes in the lid and check on it in a few months, it'll have gone white and stale. If you do the same in an airtight box, the chocolate will stay the same and will still be edible. It's the lead that serves this effect on a corpse. Without the lead, heat inside the coffin begins to decay the body, the wood decomposes and then the elements can get to the body which begins to decompose quite quickly. The lead keeps the body cool and suspends natural decomposition - hence perfectly preserved corpses which can then be passed off as 'incorrupt' or 'saintly'.

The comparison of Diana, the Pope and chocolate sounds like a surrealist painting lol.
It's indeed the cold that makes a body stay in state. Cryopreservation shows that very well (Cryopreservation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) although if you'd wished that you could reanimate Diana, there's no chance :

"Human cryopreservation is not currently reversible"

(link => Cryonics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Moreover, her body wasn't prepared to such a possible experience. It should have been put at 77 K or −196 °C so as to preserve the cells, the brain and the whole blood system.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by BeatrixFan

Well it's an easy experiment to do actually. If you put a square of milk chocolate in a box with holes in the lid and check on it in a few months, it'll have gone white and stale. If you do the same in an airtight box, the chocolate will stay the same and will still be edible. It's the lead that serves this effect on a corpse. .

It is supposed that a combination of hermetic sealing and the action of lead compounds from the coffin itself cause the action of putrefaction to slow.

Another reason Diana was given a lead lined casket, was to ensure that should the Island flood, it would not be likely to rise up with flood water. The Oak will, I think have already started to come away from the lead.

Diana's coffin, apparently weighed 50 stone (700lbs), which sounds heavy but my BMW in full dress weighs 22 stone (308lbs).

[GillW]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

It is supposed that a combination of hermetic sealing and the action of lead compounds from the coffin itself cause the action of putrefaction to slow.

Another reason Diana was given a lead lined casket, was to ensure that should the Island flood, it would not be likely to rise up with flood water. The Oak will, I think have already started to come away from the lead.

Diana's coffin, apparently weighed 50 stone (700lbs), which sounds heavy but my BMW in full dress weighs 22 stone (308lbs).

That island cannot flood and is not waterlogged. If that land was to flood then the whole of Althorp estate would be under water - in fact probably most of Northamptonshire too!

That is a false lake made from a concrete basin and the island is piled earth from that excavation heaped into the centre ring of the "basin" - think of a circular "jelly-mould" construction. This is a manufactured and carefully managed landscape feature, and not a natural soggy hollow with a lump in the middle - that's why its called The Round Oval.

If in doubt go to Google Earth & search for Althorp, Northampton - you can zoom in quite close & see that very clearly (besides which I have been several times, including before the previous Earl died, when the Oval was deserted and rather unkempt - but very lovely anyway)

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by GillW

That island cannot flood and is not waterlogged. If that land was to flood then the whole of Althorp estate would be under water - in fact probably most of Northamptonshire too!

I was aware that the island was a man made feature, but even they can get the drainage blocked. When people pile earth into any construction, concrete or not, it can get waterlogged and even trees can start to float, when burying Diana's casket, it would seem they took all possible precautions. I specifically put 'should the island flood', knowing that it would be unlikely for the whole of Althorp and/or Northampton to flood and that the feature was just a concrete bowl, (which could deteriorate over the years).

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

I was aware that the island was a man made feature, but even they can get the drainage blocked. When people pile earth into any construction, concrete or not, it can get waterlogged and even trees can start to float, when burying Diana's casket, it would seem they took all possible precautions. I specifically put 'should the island flood', knowing that it would be unlikely for the whole of Althorp and/or Northampton to flood and that the feature was just a concrete bowl, (which could deteriorate over the years).

Such man-made lakes are quite common nowadays when they build motorways through areas where little creeks are. In case of flooding, these lakes are filled first and take all the water, so the streets are not flooded.

We just had such a lake build here in addition to the existing ones (the motorway runs along the northern shore of the Ammersee-lake and was put into a tunnel under our village green to protect the village from the noise). But because there is the lake and acreek coming from the mountains they had to build a new lake to offer even better protection for the tunnel and the village from flooding). I took the opportunity while walking my dog to talk to an engineer supervising the works there and asked him about the lake at Althorp.

He said that when there is an island in the lake, the problem with the water does not come not from the lake itself but from the ground water which cannot go up on the base of the lake due to the concrete sealing but is pressured to mount in the soil of the island. He said it depended on how wet the climate is there and how plain the area is around the gardens of Althorp. If there were heavy rains and Althorp was situated in a valley chances are that the island is flooded from below the ground, even though the rest of the gardens could stay relatively dry. He said that one could see that on looking at the vegetation of the gardens and compare it to the vegetation of the island.

If the island was very mossy instead of having grass on it or has trees that grow in rather wet soils then the island is endangered of being flooded. But even then you could bury somebody there on introducing a concrete foundation for the coffin instead of just lower it into the earth. But still it would be a wet place...

[GillW]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

I was aware that the island was a man made feature, but even they can get the drainage blocked. When people pile earth into any construction, concrete or not, it can get waterlogged and even trees can start to float, when burying Diana's casket, it would seem they took all possible precautions. I specifically put 'should the island flood', knowing that it would be unlikely for the whole of Althorp and/or Northampton to flood and that the feature was just a concrete bowl, (which could deteriorate over the years).

Can I just clarify a couple of points?

The Round Oval is very old and was not designed nor constructed purposely for the burial of Diana nor anyone else.

Quote from Althorp House Garden - a Gardens Guide review -

"The Round Oval, as the lake is known, was cleaned out and re-filled in 1868. The Summerhouse at the lakeside was bought in 1901 by John Poyntz, Fifth Earl Spencer for Charlotte Spencer who wished to have it erected in the pleasure grounds. The Summerhouse was moved to the south of the Round Oval in 1926 where it stands today, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana was buried on the island in the Round Oval in 1997 - it is a peculiarly appropriate spot and attracts large numbers of visitors"

It is quite hard to describe how it is constructed but please do not think of it as a simple saucer-type of bowl with a pile of soil in the centre. You have to imagine the kind of doughnut-shape-in-reverse (see this illustration: http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...jellymould.jpg) the "island" in the centre is quite outside of the concrete structure, in exactly the same way as are the surrounding paths. I can't think of another way of describing it.

Because of this the trees etc are not planted into "earth piled into the construction" (pardon the paraphrase), but directly into the good solid Northamptonshire earth, and surrounded by a hoop-shaped pool. The type & size of trees which are there could not grow in the other circumstances.

The drainage for the water in the pool is an easily accessible grating at each of the ends and these are well maintained and cleaned so there is no build up of debris to cause any kind of blockage or overflowing onto the land area of the central island - which is actually a little higher than the surrounding pathways.

Hope this helps everyone visualise the construction and to understand that the earth where Diana lies is firm & dry just like the rest of the Althorp estate.

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by GillW

Can I just clarify a couple of points?


Hope this helps everyone visualise the construction and to understand that the earth where Diana lies is firm & dry just like the rest of the Althorp estate.

Thank you for the explanation. still, I think the point the engineer talked about is valid: once you seal of part of the surrounding soil with concrete, the rest of the "open" land attracts more ground water when it rises due to strong rainfalls. Thus, the island could potentially flood from within after strong rain but that's not the constant situation but only occassionally so - just like normal graveyards sometimes are "land under".

I accept that the idea with the isalnd was probably a good one in order to keep people from coming to close to Diana's grave, but still - the island was used to bury the dead pets of the Spencer's and now there is allegedly the grave of the mother of the future king? If they had erected a little chapel there with a crypt for Diana, I could believe in the story but the way it is it is suspicious for me. I for one wouldn't have buried my brother on such an island as if he was a pet of mine....

I still believe Diana's body was removed and replaced with stones or something else and then Earl Spencer took the Royal standart for her real grave and put his sister's body into another coffin or a case which could be used as such till it was possible to remove her from Althorp and bury her wherever. I'm convinced prince Charles and William and Harry were not informed but at a later point.

[BeatrixFan]

Originally Posted by TheTruth

The comparison of Diana, the Pope and chocolate sounds like a surrealist painting lol.
It's indeed the cold that makes a body stay in state. Cryopreservation shows that very well (Cryopreservation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) although if you'd wished that you could reanimate Diana, there's no chance : (link => Cryonics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Moreover, her body wasn't prepared to such a possible experience. It should have been put at 77 K or −196 °C so as to preserve the cells, the brain and the whole blood system.

I thought that once you were dead that was it even with cryogenics. Don't you have to be frozen whilst alive so you can be defrosted later? If cryogenics don't work once you're dead then Walt Disney must be turning in his fridge.

[PR Princess]

I know she met some celebrities, but I was wondering did she meet all those celebrities who went to her funeral? The famous I know was Elton John who was her good friend.