The Queen’s coffin has started its journey to London ahead of a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19 when world leaders, including President Joe Biden, are expected.

Her oak coffin will lie in state in Westminster Hall for four days to allow members of the public to file past and pay their respects, with her final resting place being in the crypt of St George’s Chapel in Windsor alongside Prince Philip who died in April last year.

The Queen’s interment will be a very private affair in the presence of close family members and possibly a few friends.

On Sunday, as the hearse slipped out of Balmoral Castle just after 10am, the most striking sound was that of silence, interrupted only by the lapping waters from the nearby River Dee.

Perhaps this was the moment people realised that the Queen really had passed away. Only on Monday, September 5, she had been photographed with Liz Truss, asking her to form a new government. She had a walking stick but Jane Barlow, the Press Association photographer who took that last image of the Queen, said although frail she appeared to be in “good spirits”. She was 96 but the speed of her decline shocked the nation.

The Queen’s coffin was kept in the ballroom at Balmoral, her 50,000-acre estate where she has spent many happy holidays ever since she was a little girl.

On Sunday, the coffin, covered in the Royal standard of Scotland, was carried to the hearse by six of her gamekeepers (“Ghillies”).

On top was a wreath made up of flowers from the garden at Balmoral — dahlias, sweet pea, phlox, white heather and pine fir. Behind the hearse was a six-car convoy with Princess Anne accompanying her mother.

There is a quick route from Balmoral to Edinburgh but the hearse meandered 175 miles, past Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth, to allow crowds gathered by the roadside to have a glimpse of the passing convoy. The hearse slowed down as it reached Ballater, which is just four miles from Balmoral. A few tossed petals, others bowed.

TV cameras in helicopters followed the hearse’s stately progress along the side of the River Dee. The green of the rugged countryside recalled the film adaptation of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps.

In Edinburgh, first stop for the coffin was the royal residence in Scotland, Holyrood House, before being shifted to St Giles’ Cathedral.

On Tuesday, Princess Anne will again accompany the coffin as it is flown to RAF Northolt in north London, kept initially at Buckingham Palace, and then moved by gun carriage on Wednesday to Westminster Hall.

The day of the funeral has been declared a bank holiday.