[Source: BBC News]
As the cortege travels through Scotland, we’re watching the first steps of a journey that will last more than a week, before culminating at the state funeral next Monday.
It’s a ceremonial journey with its own narrative.
It’s going from the homely setting of six Balmoral gamekeepers lifting her coffin, to the grandeur of Westminster Abbey in London, where the pews will be packed with world leaders.
When the Queen’s father George VI died in 1952 gamekeepers at Sandringham had formed a guard of honour for his coffin.
Balmoral was one of the Queen’s favourite places, perhaps because it gave her more privacy. Prime ministers visiting there were said to have been surprised to see her doing the washing up after a meal.
She’s left there now for the last time, with flowers picked from her Scottish estate on the coffin, including white heather, pine fir, phlox, dahlias and sweet peas, which were said to be one of her favourites.
Mourners are now gathered in towns along the route, or dotted along the roadside to watch the funeral cortege, with these small groups about to become much bigger crowds, as the journey reaches Edinburgh and then London.
