Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and CuriositiesAnonymous
History
Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and Curiosities
Anonymous
Westminster Abbey
At the back of Cornewall's, is the monument to the Right Honourable JAMES
CRAGGS, who was made Secretary at War in April, 1717, and one of his
Majesty's Privy Council and Secretary of State, in March, 1718. The statue
of this gentleman, large as the life, is finely represented as leaning on
an urn, which has upon it in golden characters, an inscription, showing
that he was principal Secretary of State, and a man _universally beloved_,
which is there particularly marked, because, as he was of low extraction,
being only a shoemaker's son, it is the more admirable, that in the high
station to which his merit had raised him, he should escape envy, and
acquire the general esteem. He died February 16, 1720, aged thirty-five.
Upon the base of the monument is this epitaph, written by Mr. Pope:--
"Statesman, yet friend to truth, of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear!
Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend.
Ennobled by himself, by all approv'd,
Prais'd, wept, and honour'd, by the muse he lov'd."
--_Signor Guelphi, sculptor._
A statue of WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, placed here by the friends and admirers of
the late Poet. Mr. Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on
April 7, 1770, and died at Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Westmoreland, on April
23, 1850. The statue is much admired; and the meditative attitude in which
the Poet is represented, and the quiet and sacred spot in which it is
placed, apart from the crowd, and in a peaceful retirement of its own,
harmonize with and are expressive of, the tranquil tenour of his life, and
the thoughtful, sublime, and philosophic character of his works.
Next to this is a bust of KEBLE, by T. Woolner. It occupies the middle of
the three arcades on the west side of the South Tower, and adjoins the
monument of Wordsworth. It has a pedestal of alabaster containing a black
marble inscription panel, on either side of which is a green marble
pillar, between the carved capitals of which is seated a vesica-shaped
panel of alabaster, richly moulded, carved, and studded with gems of blue
fluor-spar within ovals of gilt beads. Above this is placed a Calvary
cross of alabaster with gemmed and inlaid arms and trefoiled ends. The
internal part of the vesica panel is occupied with the white marble bust,
life size, placed on an enriched corbel of alabaster, on which corbel are
inclined pillars which support a trefoiled and gabled canopy overhanging
the bust. The total height of the work is nine feet, and its width three
feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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