Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and CuriositiesAnonymous
History
Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and Curiosities
Anonymous
Westminster Abbey
Opposite is a figure to the memory of Lady WALPOLE, with the following
inscription:--"To the memory of Catherine, Lady Walpole, eldest daughter
of John Shorter, Esq., of Bybrook, in Kent, and first wife of Sir Robert
Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford, Horace, her youngest son, consecrated
this monument. She had beauty and wit, without vice or vanity, and
cultivated the arts without affectation: she was devout, though without
bigotry to any sect; and was without prejudice to any party, though the
wife of a minister, whose power she esteemed but when she could employ it
to benefit the miserable, or to reward the meritorious; she loved a
private life, though born to shine in public: and was an ornament to
Courts, untainted by them. She died August the 20th, 1737."--_Valory,
sculptor._
At the end, a monument to the memories of GEORGE MONCK, and CHRISTOPHER,
his son, both Dukes of Albemarle; also, ELIZABETH, Duchess Dowager of
Albemarle and Montague, relict of Christopher. George Monck, Duke of
Albemarle, was younger son of Sir Thomas Monck, born at Potheridge, Devon,
December 6, 1608. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1625, under Sir
Richard Grenville. At the death of Cromwell he took an active part in the
restoration of Charles II., for which he was loaded with honours, and died
in the esteem of his sovereign, in 1670, in the sixty-second year of his
age.--_Scheemakers, sculptor._
At this end is the Royal Vault, as it is called, in which are deposited
the remains of CHARLES II., who died February 2, 1685; WILLIAM III., who
died March 8, 1702, and Queen MARY, his consort, who died December 28,
1694; Queen ANNE, died August 1, 1714; and Prince GEORGE, who died Oct.
28, 1708.
THE NAVE.
From this aisle you enter the nave of the Chapel, the stone ceiling of
which is curious, and the gates are brass. Here were installed, with great
ceremony, the Knights of the most Honourable Order of the Bath, which
order was revived in the reign of George I., in 1725. In their stalls are
placed brass plates of their arms, &c., and over them hang their banners,
swords, and helmets. Under the stalls are seats for the esquires; each
Knight has three, whose arms are engraven on brass plates. The small
shelving stool which the seats of the stalls form when turned up is called
a _miserere_. On these the monks and canons of ancient times, with the
assistance of their elbows on the upper part of the stalls, half supported
themselves during certain parts of their long offices, not to be obliged
always to stand or kneel. It is so contrived, that if the body became
supine by sleep, it naturally fell down, and the person who rested upon it
was thrown forward on the middle of the choir.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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