Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel
north and one to the south, each of which are bound by semi-circular
rows of Corinthian pillars.
Continuing again towards the east, a couple of steps mark the
commencement of the choir leading from the dome, and is carried forward
by three arches on either side. Behind the altar the colossal building
terminates in the apsidal Chapel of Jesus. Throughout the entire length
and breadth of the building is the crypt below. There under the choir,
the nearest to the south wall in the crypt chapel, is the modest slab
that covers the remains of the great architect of the grand edifice.
Next to him lies the body of Lord Leighton, the greatest president the
Royal Academy has ever had. Just in the one corner are buried some of
the most eminent of England's painters, sculptors, and musicians. Those
more generally known are Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the
Royal Academy; Benjamin West, who succeeded him in office; Sir Thomas
Lawrence, who next filled it, and Sir John Millais, who held the dignity
only a few months after Leighton's death. The remains of J. M. W.
Turner, James Barry, John Foley, Sir Edwin Landseer, and Sir Arthur
Sullivan, musician, who are also some of the many great builders of art,
have all been accorded a little plot of ground close to their very great
brother-artist and predecessor, Sir Christopher Wren. In the centre of
the crypt, or rather right underneath the dome, is a noble mausoleum
containing the body of England's greatest admiral, Viscount Horatio
Nelson, whilst just close to him between the crypt chapel and the dome
is the massive sarcophagus of granite, encased in which is the body of
the Duke of Wellington. The monument of this hero of Waterloo is the
chief feature of the plastic art that attracts the visitor on looking up
the nave. It is the great artistic expression of Stevens, the sculptor,
and dwarfs all other monuments in its immediate neighbourhood. We would
like to enumerate the names of all the great men that lie in the mighty
shadow of St. Paul's, and pay some tribute to the many artists who have,
through their monuments, endeavoured their best to honour the memories
of those who have so worthily upheld the traditions of the great empire;
but any such attempt we feel we must relinquish, and devote all the
space we can to Wren's work and to that of his predecessors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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