Near this place lies ABRAHAM COWLEY, the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England; and the delight, ornament, and admiration of this age. While, sacred bard, far worlds thy works proclaim, And you survive in an immortal fame, Here may you bless’d in pleasing quiet lie, To guard thy urn may hoary Faith stand by; And all thy favourite tuneful Nine repair To watch thy dust with a perpetual care. Sacred for ever may this place be made, And may no desperate hand presume t’ invade With touch unhallow’d, this religious room, Or dare affront thy venerable tomb; Unmov’d and undisturb’d till time shall end. May Cowley’s dust this marble shrine defend. So wishes, and desires that wish may be sacred to posterity, George Duke of Buckingham, who erected this monument for that incomparable man. He died in the forty-ninth year of his age, and was carried from Buckingham-house, with honourable pomp, his exequies being attended by persons of illustrious characters of all degrees, and interred August 13, 1667. His grave is just before the monument, as appears by a blue stone, on which is engraved his name. 4. The monument of that ancient poet Geoffery Chaucer, was once a handsome one in the Gothic stile; but is now defaced by time. Chaucer, who is stiled the Father of the English poets, was the son of Sir John Chaucer, a citizen of London, employed by Edward III. in negociations abroad relating to trade. He was first a student at Cambridge; but afterwards studied at Merton College, Oxford; and to perfect himself in the knowledge of the laws, entered himself of the Middle Temple: thus accomplished, he soon became a favourite at court, and was employed as shield-bearer to the King; was a gentleman of the bedchamber, and by Edward III. was sent Embassador abroad. However, in the succeeding reign he fell into disgrace, and was committed to the Tower for high-treason, where he wrote his Testament of Love: but upon the death of Richard II. he became a greater favourite at court than ever, from his having married the great John of Gaunt’s wife’s sister. He was born in 1328, and died in 1400.