David Garrick, 1779, the actor, His figure, drawing aside a curtain and disclosing a medallion of Shakespeare, is intended to be allegorical of the way in which his theatrical performances unveiled the beauties of Shakspeare's works. "To paint fair Nature by divine command, A Shakspeare rose,-then to expand his fame, Epitaph by Pratt. During the funeral of Garrick, Burke remarked that the statue of Shakspeare seemed to point to the grave where the great actor of his works was laid. This idea is fixed in the verses of Sheridan 1— "The throng that mourn'd as their dead favourite pass'd, Near the monument of Garrick is the grave of his friend Richard Cumberland, 1811, the dramatist and essayist. His best monument is Goldsmith's portrait of him in 'Retaliation,' beginning 'Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts, The Terence of England, the mender of hearts;' To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.' Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David's, 1875. A bust by C. Bacon. Amongst the illustrious dead who have tombstones in this transept, but no monuments upon the walls, are (beginning from the south wall)— Sir John Denham, 1669, the poet of 'Cooper's Hill,' 'deservedly considered as one of the fathers of English poetry.' 2 Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1784, the essayist, critic, and lexicographer. He was buried here beside his friend Garrick, contrary to his desire that he might rest at Adderley in Shropshire, which belonged to his friend Lady Corbet, cousin of Mrs. Thrale. His monument is in St. Paul's. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1816, the dramatist (author of the Rivals, the Duenna, and the School for Scandal), who, being for many years in Parliament, obtained an extraordinary reputation as an orator by his 'Begum Charge' before the House of Commons in the proceedings against Warren Hastings. He was suffered to die in great poverty, yet his funeral was conducted with a magnificence which called forth the verses of Moore 'Oh! it sickens the heart to see bosoms so hollow, And spirits so mean in the great and high-born, To think what a long line of titles may follow How proud can they press to the funeral array Of one whom they shunned in his sickness and sorrow :— Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow.' John Henderson, the actor, 1785-equally great in comedy and tragedy. Mary Eleanor Bowes, 1800, the beautiful and unfortunate widow of the ninth Earl of Strathmore, buried amongst the poets on account of her brilliant wit and her extraordinary mental acquirements. 1 Moore's Life of Sheridan. 2 Dr. Johnson. Henry Cary, 1844, the translator of Dante. Thomas Parr, 'of ye county of Salop, born in A.D. 1483. He lived in the reignes of ten princes, viz.-King Edward IV., King Edward V., King Richard III., King Henry VII., King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, King Charles; aged 152 years, and was buryed here, 1635.' Charles Dickens, 1870 (the grave is near the commemorative bust of Thackeray), the illustrious author of many works, of which the 'Pickwick Papers,' 'Oliver Twist,' 'Dombey and Son,' and 'David Copperfield' are the best known. Sir William Davenant, 1668, who succeeded Ben Jonson as poet-laureate to Charles I., being son of a vintner at Oxford. He was buried in the grave of Thomas May, the poet (disinterred at the Restoration), with the inscription, 'O Rare Sir William Davenant.' Sir Richard Moray, 1673, one of the founders of the Royal Society, called by Bishop Burnet 'the wisest and worthiest man of his age.' James Macpherson, 1796, author of ' Ossian,' brought hither from Inverness. Thomas Chiffinch and John Osbaldiston, 1666, pages of the bedchamber to Charles II. Robert Adam, 1792, architect of the Adelphi Terrace and Osterley Park, &c. William Gifford, 1826, the eminent critic, best known as the editor of the Quarterly Review from its commencement in 1819 to 1824. John Ireland, Dean of Westminster, 1842, founder of the Ireland Scholarships at Oxford. William Spottiswoode, 1883, President of the Royal Society. Between the pillars opposite Dryden's tomb is a slab from which the brass has been torn away, covering the grave of Hawle, the knight murdered in the choir, 1378, during the Abbey service, by a breach of the rights of sanctuary. Owen Tudor, son of Queen Katherine de Valois, and uncle of Henry VII., himself a monk of Westminster, lies near this. Against the screen of the choir, on the right of its entrance, are the tombs of Dr. Richard Busby, 1695, for fifty-five years headmaster of Westminster School. His noble statue (by F. Bird) does not seem suggestive of the man who declared that 'the rod was his sieve, and that whoever could not pass through that, was no boy for him.' He is celebrated for having persistently kept his hat on when Charles II. came to visit his school, saying that it would never do for the boys to think any one superior to himself. 'As we stood before Dr. Busby's tomb, the knight (Sir Roger de Coverley) uttered himself again: Dr. Busby! a great man! he whipped my grandfather; a very great man! I should have gone to him myself if I had not been a blockhead; a very great man!'-Addison, in the 'Spectator. Dr. William Vincent, 1815, headmaster and Dean. A tablet. Dr. Robert South, 1716, Archdeacon of Westminster. As a Westminster boy, when leading the devotions of the school, he boldly prayed for Charles I. by name on the morning of his execution. He was afterwards chaplain to James, Duke of York; Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and of Westminster, of which he refused the Deanery when it was offered to him on the death of Dean Sprat. He was equally famous for his learning and wit, and for his theological and political intolerance. Bishop Burnet speaks of him as 'this learned but ill-natured divine.' 'South had great qualifications for that popularity which attends the pulpit, and his manner was at that time original. Not diffuse, not learned, not formal in argument like Barrow, with a more natural structure of sentences, a more pointed, though by no means a more fair and satisfactory, turn of reasoning, with a style clear and English, free from all pedantry, but abounding with those colloquial novelties of idiom which, though now become vulgar and offensive, the age of Charles II. affected; sparing no personal or temporary sarcasm; but if he seems for a moment to tread on the B verge of buffoonery, recovering himself by some stroke of vigorous sense and language; such was the witty Dr. South, whom the courtiers delighted to hear.'-Hallam, 'Hist. of the Lit. of Europe. 'South's sentences are gems, hard and shining: Voltaire's look like them, but are only French paste.'-Guesses at Truth. We may now enter 'the solemn byways of the Abbey'-the aisles surrounding the choir, outside which cluster-with reference, as some suppose, to the communion of saints-a number of hexagonal chapels, which were probably built by Henry III. in imitation of those which he had himself seen in course of construction in several of the northern cathedrals of France. These chapels contain all that is most precious in the Abbey. The gates of the choir aisles are guarded by vergers. [The chapels are usually only too freely opened to the public, to the great risk of injury to their precious contents; on four days in the week a fee of sixpence is deposited on entering, and visitors are shown round by a verger. Visitors may, however, on the closed days, obtain permission to linger in the chapels and to examine them by themselves, which will be imperative with all who are interested in the historic or art treasures they contain. Permission to draw in the chapels may be obtained by personal or written application to the Dean; and no church in the world-not even St. Mark's at Venice, St. Stephen's at Vienna, or the Mosque at Cordova-affords such picturesque subjects. Royal tombs, when given here in small type, with other tombs most important in the history of art, are marked with an asterisk.] On entering the aisles of the choir, we pass at once from the false taste of the last two centuries, to find the surroundings in harmony with the architecture. The ancient altars are gone, very little of the old stained glass remains, several of the canopies and many of the brasses and statuettes have been torn from the tombs; but, with these exceptions, the hand of the worst of destroyers-the 'restorer'-has been allowed to rest here more than in any other of our great English churches; and, except in the introduction of the atrocious statue of Watt, and the destruction of some ancient screens for the monuments of Lord Bath and General Wolfe, there is little which jars upon the exquisite colouring and harmonious beauty of the surroundings. On. the left is the gothic tomb of touchstone' erected by Henry III. to Sebert, King of the East Saxons, 616, and his Queen, Ethelgoda, when he moved their bones from the chapter-house, where they were first buried. Over this tomb, under glass, is a curious altar-decoration of the fourteenth century. 'In the centre is a figure which appears to be intended for Christ, holding_the globe and in the act of blessing; an angel with a palm branch is on each side. The single figure at the left hand of the whole decoration is St. Peter; the figure that should correspond on the right, and all the Scripture subjects on that side, are gone. In the compartments to the left, between the figure of St. Peter and the centre figures, portions of three subjects remain: one represents the Adoration of the Kings; another, apparently, the Raising of Lazarus; the subject of the third is doubtful, though some figures remain; the fourth is destroyed. These single figures and subjects are worthy of a good Italian artist of the fourteenth century. The remaining decorations were splendid and costly: the small compartments in the architectural enrichments are filled with variously coloured pieces of glass inlaid on tinfoil, and have still a brilliant effect. This interesting work of art is supposed to have originally formed part of the decorations of the high altar.'-Eastlake, 'Hist. of Oil Painting.' Beyond this, the eye, wearied with the pagan sculptures of the transept, rests in ecstasy upon the lovely details of the tombs of Richard II. and Edward III. 'In St. Peter's at Rome one is convinced that it was built by great princes. In Westminster Abbey one thinks not of the builder; the religion of the place makes the first impression, and, though stripped of its shrines and altars, it is nearer converting one to Popery than all the regular pageantry of Roman domes. One must have taste to be sensible of the beauties of Grecian architecture; one only wants passion to feel Gothic. Gothic churches infuse superstition, Grecian temples admiration. The Papal See amassed its wealth by Gothic cathedrals, and displays it in Grecian temples.'-Walpole. We must now turn to the chapels. 'I wandered among what once were chapels, but which are now occupied by the tombs and monuments of the great. At every turn I met with rare illustrious names, or the cognisance of some powerful house renowned in history. As the eye darts into these dusky chambers of death, it catches glimpses of quaint effigies; some kneeling in niches, as if in devotion; others stretched upon the tombs, with hands piously pressed together; warriors in armour, as if reposing after battle; prelates with crosiers and mitres; and nobles in robes and coronets, lying as it were in state. In glancing over this scene, so strangely populous, yet where every form is so still and silent, it seems almost as if we were treading a mansion of that fabled city where every being has been suddenly transmuted into stone.'-Washington Irving. On the right is the Chapel of St. Benedict, or Bennet, separated only from the south transept by a screen of monuments. The fine tomb in the centre is that of Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, 1645, Lord High Treasurer in the time of James I., and Anne, his wife; it is one of the latest instances of a monument in which the figures have animals at their feet.1 His grave, with those of other members of his family, is beneath the pavement of the aisle. Other tombs are (South Wall.) George Sprat (1682), son of the Dean of Westminster. Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster, 1601, of whom Fuller says, 'Goodman was his name and goodness was his nature. It was under this Dean that the Pro testant services of the Abbey were re-established. (At the east end, on the site of the altar.) Frances Howard, Countess of Hertford, 1598, sister of Howard of Effingham, the Lord High Admiral who repulsed the Armada, daughter-in-law of the Protector Somerset, and cousin of Edward VI. She lived till the fortieth year of Elizabeth, 'greately favoured by her gratious sovereigne, and dearly beloved of her lord.' Abbot Curtlyngton, 1334, the first person buried in the chapel. His brass is torn away. *(East Wall.) Abbot Simon Langham, 1376. A noble alabaster statue in perfect preservation on an altar-tomb: it once had a canopy, and a statue of Mary Magdalen, on the eve of whose feast the abbot died, stood at the feet. He was in turn Bishop of Ely, Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Bishop of Praeneste, Lord High Treasurer, and Lord Chancellor. He was brought back to be buried here from Avignon, where he died. His immense benefactions to the Abbey are recorded by Godwin, yet his unpopularity appears in the verses which commemorate his translation from Ely to Canterbury 'The Isle of Ely laught when Simon from her went, Gough, Sepulchral Monuments. 2 Weever's Funeral Monuments. William Bill, 1561, the first Elizabethan Dean of Westminster, Grand Almoner to the Queen, a good and learned man, and ‘a friend to those that were so.' John Spottiswoode, 1639, Archbishop of Glasgow, is believed to be buried here. He wrote the ' History of the Scottish Church,' at the command of James I., 'who, being told that some passages in it might possibly bear too hard of his Majesty's mother, bid him "write the truth and spare not.' d upon the memory Between the Chapels of St. Benedict and St. Edmund is the tomb of four of the Children of Henry III. (Richard, John, Henry, and Katherine), once adorned with mosaics. The State Records contain the king's order for its erection, and for allowing Simon de Wells five marks and a half for bringing a brass image from the City, and William de Gloucester seventy marks for a silver image -both being for the tomb of the king's little dumb daughter Katherine, of five years old, for whom mass was daily said in the hermitage of Charing. 'Katherine, third daughter of King Henry III. and Queen Eleanor, was born at London, A.D. 1252, Nov. 25th, being St. Katherine's day, whose name was therefore given unto her at the Font, by Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, her uncle and godfather. She dyed in her very infancy, on whom we will presume to bestow this epitaph "Wak't from the wombe, she on this world did peep, Dislik't it, clos'd her eyes, fell fast asleep."-Fuller's Worthies. In the pavement of the aisle are the tombs of Robert Tounson, Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Salisbury, 1621; of Cicely Ratcliffe, 1396; of Thomas Bilson, 1616, Bishop of Winchester, the 'deep and profound scholar;'2 and of Sir John de Bewerley, and his wife, Anne Buxall, which once bore brasses. Beneath the tomb of Richard II. is believed to lie Queen Anne of Warwick, the unhappy Anne Neville, who married first the Prince of Wales, Edward, son of Henry VI. After his murder at Tewkesbury she fled from the addresses of his cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., but was discovered disguised as a kitchenmaid, and married to him against her will. She died in less than two years after her coronation, of grief for the loss of her only child, Edward, Prince of Wales. St. Edmund's Chapel (the first of the hexagonal chapels), dedicated to Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, is separated from the aisle by an ancient wooden screen. It is crowded with interesting monuments. In the centre are three tombs. *That in the midst bears a glorious brass in memory of Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, daughter of the Earl of Hertford, and wife of Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III., buried in the Confessor's Chapel. After her husband's arrest and assassination, she became a nun of Barking Abbey, where she died in 1399. Her figure, in a widow's dress, lies under a triple canopy. Beyond Eleanor, on the south, are the tomb and cross of Robert de Waldeby, Archbishop of York (1397), the friend of the Black Prince and tutor of Richard II. On the north is Mary Villiers, Countess of Stafford (1694), wife of William Howard, the Earl beheaded under Charles II. At her feet re-ts Henry Ferne, Bishop of Chester (1662), who attended Charles I. during his imprisonment, and 'whose only fault it was that he could not be angry.' '3 2 Fuller's Worthies. 1 Bishop Nicholson, Scot. Hist. |