The old tablets with which the walls are incrusted have an interest from the originality of the style and the richness of material. Here we find the rather grim likeness of the worthy Palmer, and of Emery Hill, whose almshouses and schools are still to be seen in Westminster. Many Court ladies find rest in the church: such as Lady Dorothy Stafford, “who served Queen Elizabeth forty years, lying in the bed-chamber;” or Lady Blanche Parry, “chief gentlewoman of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Chamber, and keeper of her Majesty’s jewels, whom she faithfully served from her Highness’s birth;” or Anne Ellis, “who was born in Denmark, and was Bedchamber Woman to Queen Anne.” We come on a record “To the memory of the right virtuous and beautiful gentlewoman, Mistress Margaret Ratcliffe, one of the maids of honour to Queen Elizabeth, and who died at Richmond.” Many of the men, too, have served their King, like Cornelius Vandam, “souldier with King Henry at Turney, Yeoman of the Guard, and Usher to Prince Henry, King Edward, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth;” or Peter Newton, “who served King James and King Charles, and was Usher of the Black Rod.” Some of the inscriptions are quaint and touching, like that which celebrates “the late deceased Virgin Mistress Elizabeth Hereicke”:-- Sweet Virgin, that I do not set Thy grave verse up in mournful jet Or dappled marble, let thy shade Not wrathful seeme, or fright the Maid Who hither, at the weeping Howres, Shall come to strew thy Earth with Flowres. No: know, blest Soule, when there’s not one Reminder left of Brasse or Stone Thy living Epitaph shall be, Though lost in them, yet found in me. Deare, in thy bed of Roses then, Till this world shall dissolve, as Men Sleepe, while we hide thee from the light, Drawing thy curtains round--Good night. With much simplicity another lady, Dame Billing, frankly tells us of the happiness she enjoyed with her three husbands, whom she sets down in their order, “garnishing the tablet with their armes.” Another widow records on an old battered “brass” the merits of one Cole, her latest partner, at great length; whereof an extract:-- In Parliament, a Burgesse Cole was placed In Westminster the like, for many years; But now, with Saints above, his soul is graced, And lives a Burgess with Heaven’s Royal Peers. There is also seen here Pope’s well-known epitaph on Mrs. Corbett, which won Dr. Johnson’s highest praise, though he takes the objection that her name is not mentioned in the lines themselves. It is well worth quoting:-- Here rests a woman, good without pretence, Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense; No conquest she but her own sense desired, No arts essayed, but not to be admired. Of this line the Doctor says with grim humour: “I once heard a lady of great beauty and excellence object that it contained an unnatural and incredible panegyric--of this let the ladies judge.”