Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and CuriositiesAnonymous
History
Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and Curiosities
Anonymous
Westminster Abbey
On this monument stands the stone coffin of THOMAS MILLYNG, Bishop of
Hereford, some time Abbot of Westminster, and Privy Councillor to Edward
IV., who died in 1492.
Facing you is a monument to the memory of Mrs. MARY KENDALL, daughter of
Thomas Kendall, Esq., and of Mrs. Mary Hallett, his wife, of Killigarth,
in Cornwall, who died in her thirty-third year. Her many virtues, as her
epitaph sets forth, "rendered her every way worthy of that close union and
friendship in which she lived with Lady Catherine Jones; and in testimony
of which, she desired that even their ashes, after death, might not be
divided, and therefore ordered herself here to be interred, where she knew
that excellent lady designed one day to rest near the grave of her beloved
and religious mother Elizabeth, Countess of Ranelagh. She was born at
Westminster November 8, 1677, and died at Epsom, March 4, 1710."
Above is a monument to ESTHER DE LA TOUR DE GOUVERNET, the Lord Eland's
lady. The inscription is in Latin and English, and contains an encomium on
her many excellent virtues. She died in 1694, aged twenty-eight.--_Nadaud,
sculptor._
VIII.--Chapel of Islip, otherwise Saint John the Baptist.
In the middle of this Chapel formerly stood the monument of Abbot ISLIP;
it consisted of a ground plinth, or basement, on which was an alabaster
statue of the Abbot, who was represented as a skeleton in a shroud or
winding sheet. Over this was a canopy, on which was anciently a fine
painting of our Saviour on the Cross, destroyed by the Puritans in
Cromwell's time, who were enemies to everything that favoured Popish
idolatry, though ever so masterly. Islip was a great favourite with Henry
VII., and was employed by him in decorating his new chapel, and in
repairing and beautifying the whole Abbey. He dedicated his own chapel to
St. John the Baptist, and died May 12, 1532, and was buried in his own
chapel.
On the right is the tomb of Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON, and his Lady, in
reclining attitudes on cushions. Sir Christopher died September 10, 1619;
and his widow erected this memorial of his virtues and of their own
affectionate union.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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