Historical Description of Westminster Abbey Part 4

1. Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, 1628.

2. Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, 1720.

3. The Duke de Montpensier, 1807.

4. An Urn containing the heart of Esme Stuart, son of the Duke of Richmond, 1661.

5. Lodowick Stuart, Duke of Richmond, 1623.

6. Henry VII. and Queen, 1503 and 1509.

7. The Royal Vault of George II., 1760.

8. Augusta Elizabeth Frederica, 5th daughter of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and Kincardine. The beloved wife of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of this Collegiate Church. For thirty years the devoted servant of Queen Victoria and the Queen's mother and children; for twelve years the unwearied friend of the people of Westminster and the inseparable partner of her husband's toils and hopes, uniting many hearts from many lands, and drawing all to things above. Born April 3, 1822. Died March 1, 1876.

"We know that we have pa.s.sed from death unto life because we love the brethren."

The ascent to this Chapel is from the east end of the Abbey, by steps of grey marble, under a stately portico, which leads to the gates opening to the body, or nave of the Chapel. Before you enter you may observe a door on each hand, opening into the side aisles, for it is composed of a nave and side aisles, every way answering to the plan of a cathedral. The gates by which you enter the nave are all well worth your observation; they are of bra.s.s, most curiously wrought, in the manner of frame work, and the panels being filled with the portcullis and crown; three fleur-de-lis; falcon and fetterlock; the union of the roses of York and Lancaster entwined in a crown; the thistle and crown; the initial R. H. and a crown, and the three lions of England. Being entered, your eye will naturally be directed to the lofty ceiling, which is in stone, wrought with such astonishing variety of figures, as no description can reach. The stalls are of brown wainscot, with Gothic canopies, most beautifully carved, as are the seats, with strange devices, which nothing on wood is now equal to. The pavement is of black and white marble, done at the charge of Dr.

Killigrew, once Prebendary of this Abbey, as appears by two inscriptions, one on a plate of bra.s.s, infixed in the rise towards the founder's tomb, the other cut in the pavement. The east view from the entrance presents you with the bra.s.s chapel and tomb of the founder; and round it, where the east end forms a semicircle, are the Chapels of the Dukes of Buckingham and Richmond. The walls of the nave and aisles are wrought in the most curious figures imaginable, and contain one hundred and twenty large statues of Patriarchs, Saints, Martyrs, and Confessors, placed in niches, under which are angels, supporting imperial crowns, all of them esteemed so curious, that the best masters have travelled from abroad to copy them.

The windows, which are fourteen in the upper, and nineteen in the lower range, including the side aisles and portico, were formerly of painted or diapered gla.s.s, having in every pane a white rose, the badge of Lancaster, or an H, the initial letter of the founder's name, and portcullises, the badge of the Beauforts crowned, of which a few only are now remaining. In the upper window, east end, Henry VII. is represented in stained gla.s.s.

The ceiling is of stone, and persons can walk between the roof and ceiling, where there is a s.p.a.cious room, lighted by Gothic openings through the wall.

_General Admeasurement of the Interior._

Ft. In.

Length of the Nave 103 9 Breadth of ditto 35 9 Height of the Nave to vortex of the Vaulting 60 7 Length of the Aisles 62 5 Breadth of ditto 17 2 Entire Breadth of the Chapel 70 1 Height of West Window 45 0 Breadth of ditto 31 0

_Entrance Porch or Vestibule._

Extent from North to South 28 4 Breadth 24 9

SOUTH AISLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

1. Lady Margaret Douglas, 1577.

2. Mary, Queen of Scots, 1587.

3. Margaret, Countess of Richmond, 1509.

4. Lady Walpole, 1737.

5. General Monck, Duke of Albemarle, 1670.

In front of this Monument is the Old Royal Vault, containing Charles II., 1685, King William III., 1702, Prince George of Denmark, 1708, and Queen Anne, 1714.

Here is a handsome monument, on which lies a lady finely robed, to Lady MARGARET DOUGLAS, daughter of Margaret, Queen of Scots, by the Earl of Angus. This lady, as the English inscription says, had to her great-grandfather, Edward IV.; to her grandfather, Henry VII.; to her uncle, Henry VIII.; to her cousin-german, Edward VI.; to her brother, James V. of Scotland; to her son, Henry I. of Scotland; to her grandson, James VI.; having to her great-grandmother and grandmother, two Queens, both named Elizabeth; to her mother, Margaret, Queen of Scots; to her aunt, Mary, the French Queen; to her cousins-german, Mary and Elizabeth, Queens of England; to her niece and daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots.

This lady, who was very beautiful, was privately married in 1537, to Thomas Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk, upon which account both of them were committed to the Tower by Henry VIII., her uncle, for affiancing without his consent, and he died in prison; but this Margaret being released, was soon after married to Matthew, Earl of Lennox, by whom she had the handsome Lord Darnley, father of James I., whose effigy is foremost on the tomb, in a kneeling posture. There are seven children besides round the tomb of Margaret, of whom only three are mentioned in history, the rest dying young. This great lady died March 10, 1577.

Next is the magnificent monument to MARY STUART, Queen of Scots, erected by her son, James I., soon after his accession to the English throne. This princess was born Dec. 7, 1542. She was daughter and heiress of James V.

of Scotland, who, dying when she was only a week old, succeeded to the crown. Married first, April 28, 1558, at fifteen years of age, Francis, Dauphin of France; secondly, Henry, Lord Darnley, July 29, 1565; and thirdly, Bothwell. Her subjects becoming offended, she was compelled to resign her crown to her infant son, James, by Lord Darnley; she eventually sought refuge in England, but Queen Elizabeth committed her as prisoner to the Earl of Shrewsbury at his houses of Hardwicke and Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, where she remained seventeen years a captive. She was thence transferred to the custody of Sir Amias Paulet, and shortly afterwards tried and condemned for engaging in a treasonable correspondence with the Queen's enemies. She was beheaded in the hall of Fotheringay Castle, in Northamptonshire, February 8, 1587. Her remains were first buried in Peterborough Cathedral; but James had her body privately removed to this Church, in Oct., 1612, under the superintendence of Neile, then Dean of Westminster, and buried in a vault beneath this monument.--_Stone, sculptor._

HENRY, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I., born Feb. 19, 1593, and after giving great promise of a blessing to his country, died of a fever at St. James's palace, Nov. 6, 1612, in the 19th year of his age, and was buried by the side of his grandmother.

In the same tomb are the remains of ARABELLA STEWART, four children of Charles I.: ELIZABETH of Bohemia, daughter of James I.; Prince RUPERT her son; ANN HYDE, first wife of James II., and ten of his infant children; WILLIAM, Duke of Gloucester, son of Ann, and seventeen of her infant children.

The next is the monument of MARGARET, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., by Edmund Tudor, son of Owen ap Tudor, who married the widow of Henry V. of England, and daughter of Charles VI. of France. This lady was afterwards married to Humphrey Stafford, a younger son of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, and lastly, to Thomas Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby; but by the two last had no children. The inscription mentions the charities of this excellent Princess; such as giving a salary to two monks of Westminster; founding a grammar-school at Wimbourne, and two colleges, one to Christ, the other to St. John his disciple, at Cambridge. Of this lady's bounty, forty poor women partake every Sat.u.r.day afternoon, in the College Hall; each of them has twopence, one pound and a half of beef, and a fourpenny loaf of bread. She died in July, 1509, in the reign of her grandson, Henry VIII.--_Torrigiano, sculptor._

Opposite is a figure to the memory of Lady WALPOLE, with the following inscription:--"To the memory of Catherine, Lady Walpole, eldest daughter of John Shorter, Esq., of Bybrook, in Kent, and first wife of Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford, Horace, her youngest son, consecrated this monument. She had beauty and wit, without vice or vanity, and cultivated the arts without affectation: she was devout, though without bigotry to any sect; and was without prejudice to any party, though the wife of a minister, whose power she esteemed but when she could employ it to benefit the miserable, or to reward the meritorious; she loved a private life, though born to shine in public: and was an ornament to Courts, untainted by them. She died August the 20th, 1737."--_Valory, sculptor._

At the end, a monument to the memories of GEORGE MONCK, and CHRISTOPHER, his son, both Dukes of Albemarle; also, ELIZABETH, d.u.c.h.ess Dowager of Albemarle and Montague, relict of Christopher. George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, was younger son of Sir Thomas Monck, born at Potheridge, Devon, December 6, 1608. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1625, under Sir Richard Grenville. At the death of Cromwell he took an active part in the restoration of Charles II., for which he was loaded with honours, and died in the esteem of his sovereign, in 1670, in the sixty-second year of his age.--_Scheemakers, sculptor._

At this end is the Royal Vault, as it is called, in which are deposited the remains of CHARLES II., who died February 2, 1685; WILLIAM III., who died March 8, 1702, and Queen MARY, his consort, who died December 28, 1694; Queen ANNE, died August 1, 1714; and Prince GEORGE, who died Oct.

28, 1708.

THE NAVE.

From this aisle you enter the nave of the Chapel, the stone ceiling of which is curious, and the gates are bra.s.s. Here were installed, with great ceremony, the Knights of the most Honourable Order of the Bath, which order was revived in the reign of George I., in 1725. In their stalls are placed bra.s.s plates of their arms, &c., and over them hang their banners, swords, and helmets. Under the stalls are seats for the esquires; each Knight has three, whose arms are engraven on bra.s.s plates. The small shelving stool which the seats of the stalls form when turned up is called a _miserere_. On these the monks and canons of ancient times, with the a.s.sistance of their elbows on the upper part of the stalls, half supported themselves during certain parts of their long offices, not to be obliged always to stand or kneel. It is so contrived, that if the body became supine by sleep, it naturally fell down, and the person who rested upon it was thrown forward on the middle of the choir.

In the centre, between the Knights' stalls, is the Royal Vault, where their Majesties GEORGE II. and Queen CAROLINE are buried; the Prince and Princess of WALES, two Dukes of c.u.mBERLAND, the Duke of YORK, Prince FREDERICK WILLIAM, the Princesses AMELIA, CAROLINE, ELIZABETH, LOUISA, ANNE; and the two infant Princes, ALFRED and OCTAVIUS, children of George III., were removed in January, 1820, to the new royal vault at Windsor.

What is chiefly to be admired here, as well for antiquity as fine workmanship, is the magnificent tomb of HENRY VII. and ELIZABETH his Queen, the last of the house of York who wore the English crown. This tomb stands in the body of the Chapel, enclosed in a curious chantry of cast bra.s.s, most admirably designed and executed, and ornamented with statues, of which those only of St. George, St. James, St. Bartholomew, and St.

Edward, are now remaining. Within it are the effigies of the Royal pair, in their robes of state, lying close to each other, on a tomb of black marble, the head whereof is supported by a red dragon, the ensign of Cadwallader, the last King of the Britons, from whom Henry VII. was fond of tracing his descent, and the foot by an angel. There are likewise other devices alluding to his family and alliances; such as portcullises, signifying his relation to the Beauforts by his mother's side; roses twisted and crowned, in memory of the union of the two Royal Houses of York and Lancaster. There are six compartments, three on the north, and as many on the south side of its base. The first compartment on the south side contains the figures of the Virgin Mary with our Lord in her arms, and that of the Archangel St. Michael. The figures in the scales, though now mutilated, were meant for personal representations of moral good and evil; the Saint is weighing them in his balance; the good preponderates; but the Devil, who is represented by the figure under his feet, is reaching with one of his clawed feet at the scale which contains the figure of Evil, in order, by the addition of his own force, to render that the heaviest. The first figure in the second compartment is doubtless intended for St. John the Baptist, he having a book in his left hand, with an _Agnus Dei_ impressed upon it. The other is a figure of St. John the Evangelist, and the figure of the eagle. The first figure of the third compartment is intended for St. George; the other figure, from the pig's head visible near him, the frequent symbol by which he is denoted, is intended for St. Anthony of Vienna. The first figure in the fourth compartment, north side, is meant for Mary Magdalen, supposing her to hold the box of ointment. The other figure represents St. Barbara, who was the daughter of a Pagan, and dwelt with her father in a certain tower. To this tower adjoined a garden, in which the father determined to build a bath, with the necessary accommodation of rooms, and therein to make windows to the number of two only. Being about to undertake a journey, he left his instructions with the artificers, which his daughter presumed to vary, by directing them instead of two to make three. Upon her father's return, he inquired into the reason of this deviation from his orders; and being told that in allusion to three persons of the Holy Trinity his daughter had directed it, he found that she was become a convert to Christianity; and being exasperated thereat, stimulated the Emperor to a persecution of the Christians, in which she became a martyr to the faith. The first figure in the fifth compartment is intended for St. Christopher, bearing our Saviour upon his shoulder. The other figure is thought to be St. Anne. In the sixth and last compartment, the first figure is intended for King Edward the Confessor; the other figure is a Benedictine Monk. Henry VII. died April 21st, 1509, and his Queen, February 11th, 1502.--_The work of Torrigiano._

EDWARD VI., grandson of Henry VII., who died July 6th, 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age, and seventh of his reign. On the holy table is the following inscription in Latin:--"In place of the ancient altar, destroyed in the civil wars, to the honour of G.o.d and in pious memory of Edward VI., who is buried beneath, this holy table, in a gentler age, was placed by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster. 1870."

On the south side of the tomb of Henry VII., in a small chapel, is a monument to LEWIS STUART, Duke of Richmond, and FRANCES, his wife. The bra.s.s effigies are represented as lying on a marble table, under a canopy of bra.s.s, curiously wrought, and supported by the figures of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Prudence. On the top is a fine figure of Fame, taking her flight, and resting only on her toe. This ill.u.s.trious n.o.bleman was son to Esme Stuart, Duke of Lennox, and grandson of James, nephew of James I., to whom he was First Gentleman of the Bedchamber and Privy Councillor, a Knight of the Garter, and Amba.s.sador to France on behalf of Scotland. He died Feb. 16, 1623. His lady was daughter of Thomas, Lord Howard of Bindon, son of the Duke of Norfolk, by Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of Buckingham. She died Oct. 8, 1639.--You will likewise see here a pyramid, supporting a small urn, in which is contained the heart of ESME STUART, son of the Duke of Richmond and Lennox, by Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of Buckingham. He died in France, August 15, 1661, aged eleven years, and was succeeded in all his t.i.tles by Charles, Earl of Lichfield, his cousin-german, who died December 12, 1672, and is here interred.

This monument was originally of great splendour, hardly surpa.s.sed by any in the Abbey, being wholly composed of jet black marble and bronze gilt.

The combined effects of neglect, corrosion, and spoliation had at last rendered it an unsightly wreck, when, in 1874, its almost complete restoration was undertaken by the direction and at the sole cost of the Earl of Darnley, who is a lineal descendant in the female line of the ancient Stuart family.

A monument to the DUKE DE MONTPENSIER, who is represented with ducal coronet and robes, and his remains are beneath. On the front of this tomb is the following inscription:--"The most ill.u.s.trious and Serene Prince, ANTHONY PHILIP, Duke of Montpensier, descended from the Kings of France, second son of the Duke of Orleans, from his earliest youth bred to arms, and even in chains unsubdued; of an erect mind in adversity, and in prosperity not elated; a constant patron of the liberal arts, polite, pleasant, and courteous to all, nor ever wanting in the duties of brother, neighbour, friend, or in the love of his country. After experiencing the vicissitudes of fortune, he was received with great hospitality by the English nation, and at length rests in this asylum for kings. Born July 3, 1775. Died May 18, 1807, aged thirty-one. Louis Philip, Duke of Orleans, erects this monument in memory of the best of brothers."--_Sir Richard Westmacott, sculptor._

The next is an excellent monument to the memory of JOHN SHEFFIELD, Duke of Buckingham, where, on an altar, lies his Grace's effigy, in a Roman habit, with his d.u.c.h.ess, Catherine, natural daughter of the Duke of York, afterwards James II., sitting at his feet weeping. In the reign of Charles II. as the inscription sets forth, he was General of the Dutch troop of horse, Governor of Kingston Castle upon Hull, and First Gentleman of the Bedchamber; in that of James II., Lord Chamberlain; and in that of Queen Anne, Lord Privy Seal, and President of the Council. He was in his youth an excellent poet, and, in his more advanced years, a fine writer. His love of poetry is conspicuous, by the esteem and regard he had for the two great masters of it, who flourished in his own time, Dryden and Pope, to the first of whom he extended his friendship, even after death, by erecting a monument to his memory. To the latter he did honour, by writing a poem in his praise. Over his Grace's effigy are inscribed in Latin, sentences to the following import:--"I lived doubtful, not dissolute--I die unresolved, not unresigned. Ignorance and error are incident to human nature. I trust in an almighty and all good G.o.d. O! thou Being of Beings, have compa.s.sion on me;" and underneath it.--"for my King often, for my Country ever." His Grace died in the seventy-fourth year of his age, Feb.

24, 1720, leaving the publication of his works to the care of Mr.

Pope.--_Scheemakers, sculptor._

The remains of JAMES I. are in the tomb of Henry VII. This Prince reigned over Scotland 59 years, and over England 22 years. He was son to Lord Darnley, by Mary Queen of Scots. He died March 16, 1625, aged 61, after a long and peaceable reign. The remains of his Queen, ANN of Denmark, are in the tomb in front of the monument of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. She died March 2, 1619.

On the north side of Henry the Seventh's Chantry, in a chapel, is a very antique monument, decorated with several emblematical figures in bra.s.s, gilt, the princ.i.p.al of which is Neptune, in a pensive posture, with his trident reversed, and Mars with his head crouched. These support the tomb on which lie the effigies of GEORGE VILLIERS, Duke of Buckingham, and his d.u.c.h.ess, the great favourite of James I. and Charles I., who fell a sacrifice to national resentment, and perished by the hands of Felton, August 23, 1628, who had no other motive of action but the clamours of the people. CATHERINE, his d.u.c.h.ess, was interred in the same vault, April 8, 1643.

CROMWELL, four of his family, and six officers were buried in the vault at the end of this chapel. Their remains were removed at the Restoration.

The following are also interred in this portion of the Chapel:--JOHN CAMPBELL, Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, 1743. EDWARD VI., ELIZABETH CLAYPOLE, second daughter of Oliver Cromwell, 1658.