[Illustration] The cenotaph of Abbot Wich is at the entrance of St. Edward’s Chapel; it represents, as already stated, an emaciated figure, surrounded by the ensigns of mortality, which seem to address every ear in these emphatic words--Memento mori! The east end is hexagonal, separated from the aisles by six short massive columns supporting pointed arches. Beneath these are some larger monuments, and over them are windows fitted with painted glass. In two of them are very curious figures of knights in armour, eight in number, and represented standing under very rich Gothic canopies, each filling nearly one of the principal compartments of the windows, some in mail, others in plated armour. They are said to represent Robert first earl of Gloucester, the three Gilberts de Clare, Richard de Clare, Hugh le Despenser the younger, and one of the La Zouch family; all of whom have been already noticed in the genealogical introduction to this subject.--History of the County, art. Tewkesbury. <g>Benedictine.</g> To fashion my reply to your demand Is not to boast, though I proclaim the honours Of our profession. _Four emperors_, Forty-six kings, and one-and-fifty queens, Have changed their royal ermines for our sables. These cowls have clothed the heads of fourteen hundred And six kings’ sons; of dukes, great marquises, And earls, two thousand and above four hundred Have turn’d their princely coronets into An humble coronet of hair, left by The razor--thus.--SHIRLEY. <g>Tewkesbury Abbey</g> was the last of the monastic establishments in Gloucestershire which surrendered to the mandate of Henry the Eighth. The surrender was made, under the convent seal, by John Wich, with fifteen of the brotherhood, on the 9th day of January, 1539, being the thirty-first year of the king’s reign, and began in these terms:--“To all Christian people to whom these presents shall come, We the Abbot, etc., and Brothers of the said monastery, send greeting. Know ye, that we upon full consideration, certain knowledge, and mere motion, and for divers causes just and reasonable moving our souls and consciences thereto, have freely and voluntarily given and granted to our Lord the King,” etc.