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 — John Shaqi
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
11. A monument erected to the memory of Thomas Shadwell, is adorned
with his bust crowned with a chaplet of bays, an urn, and other
decorations. It was erected to his honour by his son Dr. Thomas
Shadwell, and the Latin inscription informs us, that he was descended
from an ancient family in Staffordshire; was Poet Laureat and
Historiographer in the reign of King William, and died November 20,
1692, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. This poet was the author of
several plays; but falling under the lash of Mr. Dryden, was satirized
by him under the character of Ogg, in the second part of his Absalom
and Achitophel.
12. The monument of Matthew Prior, is adorned with great expence. On
one side of the pedestal stands the figure of Thalia, one of the
Muses, with a flute in her hand; and on the other History, with her
book shut; between these statues is Prior’s bust upon a raised altar,
and over it is a handsome pediment, on the ascending sides of which
are two boys, one with an hour-glass in his hand run out; the other
holding a torch reversed. On the apex of the pediment is an urn, and
on the base of the monument is a long inscription in Latin, mentioning
the public posts and employments with which he had been intrusted; and
above we are informed, that while he was writing the history of his
own times, death interposed, and broke both the thread of his
discourse and of his life, on the 18th of September 1721, in the
fifty-seventh year of his age.
13. The monument of St. Evremond is a very plain one, adorned with a
bust. The inscription observes, that he was of a noble family in
Normandy, and was employed in the army of France, in which he rose to
the rank of a Marshal; but returning to Holland, was from thence
invited by King Charles II. into England, where he lived in the
greatest intimacy with the King and principal nobility; more
particularly with the Duchess of Mazarine. He was of a very sprightly
turn of humour, as well in his conversation as writings, and lived to
the age of ninety, when he was carried off by a fit of the strangury,
on the 9th of September 1703.
[Illustration: _S. Wale delin._ _C. Grignion sc._ _Monument of
Shakespear_]
14. The monument erected to the memory of the immortal Shakespear, a
print of which we have here given, is worthy of that great dramatic
writer, and both the design and execution are extremely elegant. Upon
a handsome pedestal stands his statue in white marble in the habit of
the time in which he lived, with one elbow leaning upon some books,
and his head reclined upon his hand, in a posture of meditation. The
attitude, the dress, the shape, the genteel air, and fine composure
observable in this figure of Shakespear, cannot be sufficiently
admired, and the beautiful lines of his upon the scroll are happily
chosen.
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