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
42. On the south side of the great west entrance is a noble monument
erected to the memory of the brave Captain Cornwall, who after
distinguishing himself by his heroism, was unhappily slain in the
battle between the English fleet, commanded by the Admirals Matthews
and Lestock, and the French. This monument was erected to his honour
by order of Parliament, and is a noble testimony of the public
gratitude for his distinguished merit. On the back is a lofty pyramid
of Egyptian marble beautifully variegated, and finely polished,
standing on a base of the same marble. Upon this base is a rock of
white marble, along the different parts of which run sea weeds. Near
the top stands a fine figure of Fame, placing a medalion of the
Captain on the summit of the rock, underneath which is a naval crown,
a globe, the trumpet of Fame, and other ornaments, and behind rises to
the top of the pediment a palm, entwined with a laurel. On the other
side of the medalion stands a beautiful figure of Britannia, with the
British Lion couchant at her feet. Beneath, in an opening of the rock,
is a Latin inscription on a fine piece of polished porphyry,
mentioning his descent, and the manner of his death, which happened
while fighting for his country, on the 3d of February 1743, in the
45th year of his age, and that the Senate of Britain consecrated this
monument to his memory. In another opening of the rock, a little
lower, is represented in bass relief a view of the engagement in which
this great man perished, and at the bottom of the rock on the sides
lie cannons, flags, anchors, &c. all of white marble.
43. The next is an elegant monument for Sir Thomas Hardy, Knt. On the
back is a lofty pyramid of a bluish coloured marble, at the foot of
which the statue of the deceased is placed, reclining upon a tomb of
elegant workmanship, with a naked boy on his left side weeping over an
urn: the enrichments round the pedestal on which he stands are just
and proper; and the inscription contains the following short history
of his life:
Sir THOMAS HARDY, to whose memory this monument is erected,
was bred in the royal navy from his youth, and was made a
Captain in 1693.
In the expedition to Cadiz, under Sir George Rooke, he
commanded the Pembroke; and when the fleet left the coast of
Spain, to return to England, he was ordered to Lagos Bay,
where he got intelligence of the Spanish galleons being
arrived in the harbour of Vigo, under convoy of seventeen
French men of war: by his great diligence and judgment he
joined the English fleet, and gave the Admiral that
intelligence which engaged him to make the best of his way to
Vigo, where all the aforementioned galleons and men of war
were either taken or destroyed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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