Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and CuriositiesAnonymous
History
Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and Curiosities
Anonymous
Westminster Abbey
Doctor SAMUEL ARNOLD, late Organist of this Church, died October 22, 1802,
aged sixty-two years. This monument was erected by his afflicted widow:--
"Oh, let thy still-loved Son inscribe thy stone,
And with a Mother's sorrows mix his own."
A sickle cutting the lyre is represented below. Turning round on your
right is--
Captain PHILIP DE SAUSMAREZ.--The inscription on this monument is a
recital of the deceased's naval exploits, one of those few whose lives
ought rather to be measured by their actions than their days. From sixteen
to thirty-seven years of age he served in the navy, and was often
surrounded with dangers and difficulties unparalleled, always proving
himself an able, active, and gallant officer. He went out a lieutenant on
board his Majesty's ship the Centurion, under the auspicious conduct of
Commodore Anson, in his expedition to the South Seas. He was commanding
officer of the same ship when she was driven from her moorings at the Isle
of Titian. In the year 1746, being Captain of the Nottingham, a sixty gun
ship, he (then alone) attacked and took the Mars, a French ship of
sixty-four guns. In the first engagement of the following year when
Admiral Anson defeated and took a squadron of French men-of-war and
Indiamen, he had an honourable share; and in the second, under Admiral
Hawke, when the enemy, after a long and obstinate resistance, was again
routed, in pursuing two ships that were making their escape, he
gloriously, but unfortunately fell. He was the son of Matthew de
Sausmarez, of the Island of Guernsey, Esq., by Ann Durell, of the Island
of Jersey, his wife. He was born November 17, 1710, killed October 14,
1747, and buried in the Old Church at Plymouth, with all the honours due
to his distinguished merits. This monument was erected by his brothers and
sisters.--_S. H. Cheere, sculptor._
Doctor CHARLES BURNEY.--A tablet with the following inscription, written
by his daughter:--"Sacred to the memory of Charles Burney, Mus. D.,
F.R.S., who, full of years and full of virtues, the pride of his family,
the delight of society, the unrivalled chief and scientific historian of
his tuneful art--beloved, revered, regretted, breathed in Chelsea College
his last sigh; leaving to posterity a fame unblemished, raised on a noble
basis of intellectual attainments. High principles and pure benevolence,
goodness with gaiety, talents with taste, were of his gifted mind the
blended attributes; while the genial hilarity of his airy spirits animated
or softened his every earthly toil: and a conscience without reproach,
prepared in the whole tenor of his mortal life, through the mediation of
our Lord Jesus Christ, his soul for heaven. Amen. Born April 7, O.S.,
1726; died April 12, 1814."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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