London and Its Environs Described, vol. 1 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round ItAnonymous
History
London and Its Environs Described, vol. 1 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It
Anonymous
London (England) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; London (England) -- Gazetteers -- Early works to 1800
7. Ben Johnson’s monument is of white marble, and his bust is executed
with great happiness and spirit; ’tis inclosed with a tablature
ornamented with a few proper and elegant decorations, consisting of
emblematical figures: and has no other inscription but the words O
RARE BEN JOHNSON! This gentleman was the son of a clergyman, and
educated at Westminster school, while Mr. Camden was Master; but after
his father’s death, his mother marrying a bricklayer, he was forced
from school, and being obliged to work for his father, ’tis said, that
at the building of Lincoln’s Inn, he was sometimes seen at work with
his trowel in one hand, and Horace in the other. However, Mr. Camden
having an esteem for him on account of his abilities, recommended him
to Sir Walter Raleigh. He attended that brave man’s son in his
travels, and upon his return, entered himself at Cambridge; afterwards
he wrote a considerable number of plays; became Poet Laureat to King
James I. and died on the 16th of August 1637, aged 63. His tomb was
erected by the Earl of Essex, who has inscribed his own name on the
stone.
8. Spenser’s tomb is of grey marble, and has suffered greatly by time.
It was erected in an age when taste was in its infancy in England, and
yet has something in it venerably plain, and not absurdly ornamental.
The inscription upon it is as follows:
Here lies (expecting the second coming of our Saviour Christ
Jesus) the Body of Edmund Spenser, the Prince of Poets in his
time, whose divine Spirit needs no other witness than the
works he left behind him. He was born in London in 1510, and
died 1596.
9. Above Spenser’s monument is that of Samuel Butler, the author of
Hudibrass. By the Latin inscription, it appears, that it was erected
by John Barber, Esq; Citizen of London, and afterwards Lord Mayor in
1731, that he who was destitute of all things when alive, might not
want a monument when dead. Mr. Butler was born at Shernsham in
Worcestershire in 1612, and died at London in 1680.
10. A plain and neat monument of white marble in memory of that divine
poet, John Milton, who died in 1674. Under a very elegant bust made by
Rysbrack is this inscription:
In the year of our Lord Christ 1737, this bust of the author
of _Paradise Lost_ was placed here by William Benson, Esq; one
of the two auditors of the imprest to his Majesty, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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