St. Mary, Chislehurst, Kent

Description

The Catholic church, erected in 1854, and dedicated to St. Mary, is of stone, and has a bell-cote, containing one bell: all windows are stained: the chapel which adjoins the nave on the south side was added in 1814 by the Empress Eugénie, at a cost of £1,500, from the designs of Mr. B. Clutton, architect, to receive the remains of the Emperor Napoleon III. who died at Camden Place, Jan. 9, 1873,: the sarcophagus of polished Aberdeen granite, presented by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, within which rested the remains of the Emperor Napoleon III. has been removed with the body of the Emperor to the chapel built by the Empress Eugénie at Farnborough, Hants, where also are now laid the remains of the Prince Imperial, killed at Itelezi, in Zululand, 1st of June, 1879; the memorial erected by Monsignor Goddard on the spot where his body lay while in this church consists of a canopied wall tomb of 15th century Gothic, with a recumbent figure of white alabaster of the prince, in the uniform of the Royal Artillery.