ALONG a path fringed by bright yellow daffodils, and with a small wreath of pink camellias freshly picked from her own beloved garden on top of her coffin, the Queen Mother began her final journey yesterday.

The six pallbearers were followed by a member of her staff, dressed in black, bearing a potted jasmine which had been by her bedside when she passed away.

The delicate white plant had been given to her by Prince Charles, her favourite grandson, as an Easter present.

At the end of the short distance from Royal Lodge, where the 101-year-old Queen Mother died at 3.15pm on Saturday, to the Royal Chapel of All Saints, the coffin was placed at the altar and the jasmine was set down nearby.

All through her long life, gardening had been one of the Queen Mother's abiding interests, and it was somehow fitting that this sombre occasion, acted out beneath a leaden grey sky as dusk approached, was illuminated by brilliant flashes of Easter floral colour.

The Queen had requested the Evensong service and, dressed in black set off by a simple diamond brooch, she led the 15 closest members of the Royal Family to the chapel

Her mother's coffin will rest there until tomorrow when it will be taken to the Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace in London.

The Royal party included the Prince of Wales and his sons, William and Harry, who arrived back early from their skiing holiday yesterday lunchtime.

The ceremony marked the start of a period of national mourning which will conclude with a royal ceremonial funeral in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday, April 9.

In London yesterday, the State Bell, known as Great Tom, tolled in St Paul's Cathedral.

It is only rung to mourn the passing of a member of the Royal Family or a senior national figure.

The bell was last heard only seven weeks ago after the death of the Queen Mother's youngest daughter, Princess Margaret.

Elsewhere in the country, ordinary people and public figures, as well as visitors from abroad, paid their respects to a Royal who, despite her family's troubles in recent decades, had remained universally popular.

Prayers were said for her at Durham Cathedral, York Minster and at Gibside, the ancestral home of the Bowes-Lyons family near Gateshead.

The loss was felt deeply in Teesdale, which she visited regularly for best part of her century, starting with her childhood holidays to the family seat at Streatlam Castle, near Barnard Castle.

Her most recent visit to the area was to the Bowes Museum in 1992.

Books of condolence were opened across the country yesterday while floral tributes were laid at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh, the Royal Highland retreat at Balmoral and St James's Palace.

Similar tributes are expected to open this week, including at the Queen Mother's childhood home of Glamis Castle, in Angus, and her home at the Castle of Mey in Caithness today.

Many people who took time out to remember the Queen Mother expressed their memory of her as someone who had the ''common touch'' and inspired love.

In one of the many prayers said for her at church services yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, gave thanks for her life.

He declared: ''She touched the lives of ordinary people and she will be remembered for that.''

Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said: "She stood for the good things, for life, for family, for the things that are healthy - and I think people recognised that in her - and for people. She loved people.''

Downing Street announced that flags on all public buildings will be flown at half mast until midnight on the day of the funeral.

But the Royal Family and the Government said they did not expect sporting fixtures to be postponed or cancelled in the run-up to the funeral. Schools are expected to remain open, although it is suggested that on the day of the funeral, headteachers may consider altering timetables so that children can mark the event in some way, such as viewing it on television.

It will not be a state funeral - which is reserved only for sovereigns - but the royal funeral and processions will be a spectacle of pomp and ceremony, rivalling the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

The Queen Mother will lie-in-state at Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster from Friday afternoon until next Monday evening, ahead of the Westminster Abbey funeral service at 11.30am on the Tuesday.

The coffin will then travel by road to Windsor for a private committal service and interment at St George's Chapel, within the precincts of Windsor Castle, later that day.

The Queen Mother will finally be laid to rest alongside her husband in the George VI Memorial Chapel at St George's, the spiritual home of British royalty.

The ashes of Princess Margaret will be taken from the Royal Vault in St George's and interred in the George VI Memorial Chapel at the same time.

In accordance with the Queen Mother's wishes, there will be no official memorial service.

The UK Parliament and the Scottish Executive will be recalled on Wednesday, the Welsh Assembly on Thursday, for elected members to pay their respects