On leaving this isle you will be shewn in another wainscot press the effigies of General Monk, who had a great share in the restoration of King Charles II. to the throne of England, and was interred in a vault appropriated to him and his family. He is represented in armour, and his ducal cap is generally made use of by those who shew this chapel, to receive the bounty of those who visit it; these persons having no share of the money paid for seeing it. Thus have we given a description of every thing remarkable in the Abbey, and that venerable pile adjoining to it, called Henry the Seventh’s chapel; we have mentioned and described the monuments in both that are worthy of notice, and we shall conclude this article with the following reflections, extracted from an ingenious writer, on this subject. “However amiable fame may be to the living, ’tis certain no advantage to the dead, whatever dangers they have dared, whatever toils they have undergone, whatever difficulties they have surmounted; the grave is deaf to the voice of applause, and the dust of the noble and vulgar sleep in the same obscurity together. ’Tis possible the conscious spirit may have an idea of the honour that is paid to his ashes; but ’tis much more probable, that the prospect of this imaginary glory, while he lived among us, was all the pleasure it ever could afford him. I make this observation, because most monuments are said to be erected as an honour to the dead, and the living are supposed to be the least concerned in them: but one man’s fame is made the foundation of another’s, in the same manner with the gentleman’s, who ordered this sentence to be made his epitaph; HERE LIES SIR PHILIP SIDNEY’S FRIEND. Some there are that mention only the names of the persons whose dust they cover, and preserve a noble silence with regard to the hand that raised them; but even here, the dead can receive no benefit from such disinterested affection; but the living may profit much by so noble an example. Another thing that displeases me is the manner of the inscriptions, which frequently mistake the very design of engraving them, and as frequently give the lie to themselves. To pore one’s self blind in guessing out _Æternæ Memoriæ Sacrum_, is a jest, that would make Heraclitus laugh; and yet most of them begin in that pompous taste, without the least reflection that brass and marble can’t preserve them from the tooth of Time; and if men’s actions have not guarded their reputations, the proudest monument would flatter in vain. Sepulchral monuments should be always considered as the last public tribute paid to virtue; as a proof of our regard for noble characters, and most particularly as an excitement to others to emulate the great example.