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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

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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

Name: 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
Author: Anonymous

Anonymous

London (England) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; London (England) -- Gazetteers -- Early works to 1800

71. The next worthy of notice is the elegant monument of Sir Charles
  Wager. The principal figure here is that of Fame holding a portrait of
  Sir Charles in relief, which is also supported by an infant Hercules.
  The enrichments are naval trophies, instruments of war and navigation,
  &c. on the base is represented in relief the destroying and taking of
  the Spanish galleons in 1708, The inscription is as follows:

                 To the memory of Sir CHARLES WAGER, Knt.
        Admiral of the White, first Commissioner of the Admiralty,
                          And Privy Counsellor;
                     A man of great natural talents,
                      Who bore the highest commands,
               And pass’d through the greatest employments,
            With credit to himself, and honour to his country.
                          He was in private life
                 Humane, temperate, just, and bountiful:
                            In public station,
                   Valiant, prudent, wise, and honest:
                          Easy of access to all;
                   Plain and unaffected in his manners,
                   Steady and resolute in his conduct:
               So remarkably happy in his presence of mind,
                   That no danger ever discompos’d him;
                    Esteemed and favoured by his King;
                   Beloved and honoured by his Country.
                      He died 24 May 1743. Aged 77.

  72. The next tomb in the Abbey that demands our attention, is that
  erected to the memory of John Hollis Duke of Newcastle, by his
  daughter the Countess of Oxford. This is perhaps the loftiest and most
  costly of any in the Abbey. A pediment is supported by beautiful
  columns of variegated marble. The Duke is represented resting upon a
  sepulchral monument, holding in his right hand a General’s staff, and
  in his left a ducal coronet. On one side the base stands a statue of
  Wisdom, on the other, of Sincerity. On the angles of the upper
  compartment sit angels, and on the ascending sides of the pediment sit
  two cherubs, one with an hour-glass, alluding to the admeasurement of
  man’s life by grains of sand; the other pointing upwards, where life
  shall no longer be measured by hours and minutes. On the base is an
  inscription enumerating his Grace’s titles, and several employments;
  his marriage and issue; and informing us that he was born Jan. 9,
  1661–2, and died July 15, 1711.

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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

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