(Vol. v., pp. 415. 517. &c.)
I adopt the above heading in preference to that which your correspondents
C. E. D., M. W. B., F. H., and NHRSL have, I think improperly, selected.
The monument, which is to be seen in the church of St. Andrew at Antwerp,
is said by them to have been erected by the two ladies Barbara Mowbray and
Elizabeth Curle to the memory of their beloved mistress the Queen of Scots;
but it will be found to have been rather erected to the memory of those two
ladies by Hippolytus Curle, the son of the former, and nephew of the
latter, in or subsequent to the year 1620. The notice of it in my Murray's
_Handbook_ of 1850 is brief but accurate:
"Against a pillar, facing the right transept, is a portrait of Mary
Queen of Scots, attached to a monument erected to the memory of two
English ladies named Curle, who served her as ladies in waiting. One of
them received her last embrace previous to her execution."
I beg to refer your correspondents to a Memoir by Mons. C. P. Serrure,
which appeared in tom. iii. of the _Messager des Sciences et des Arts de la
Belgique_, 1835, pp. 89-96., and was afterwards published at Ghent in a
separate form, under the title of _Notice sur le Mausolée de Barbe Moubray
et Elizabeth Curle, dames d'honneur de la reine Marie Stuart, qui se voit
dans l'Eglise paroissiale de Saint André, à Anvers_, with an engraving of
the monument. As the inscription conveys some biographical particulars of
the ladies whose virtues it commemorates, and as this information is asked
for by NHRSL, I have copied it: premising, however, that M. Serrure takes
credit to himself for being the first to give it in a correct shape. It is
as follows:
"Deo Opt. Max. Sacr.
Nobiliss. Dvar. e Britannia Matronar.
Monvmentvm viator spectas:
Quæ ad Regis Cathol: tvtel. orthodo. religion. cavsa
A patria profvgæ. hic in spe resurrect. qviescvnt.
In primis Barbaræ. Movbrayd. Iohan. Movbray Baronis F.
Qvæ Sereniss. Mariæ Stvartæ Reginæ Scot. a cvbicvlis
Nvptvi data Gvilberto Cvrle, qui ann. amplivs. xx.
A. secretis Reg. fverat vnaq sine qverela ann. xxiiii.
Vixervnt, liberosq. octo svstvler. sex cælo transcriptis
Filii dvo svperstites, in stvdiis liberaliter edvcati.
Iacobvs socie. Iesv sese Madriti aggregavit, in Hisp.
Hippolytvs natv minor in Gallo. Belg. Societ. Iesv
Prov. adscribi Christi militiæ volvit.
Hic moestvs cvm lacrymis optimæ parenti. P. C.
Quæ prid. Kalend. Avgvst. an^o. D. [M.DCXVI]. æt LVII.
Vitam cadvcam cvm æterna commvtavit.
Item Elizab. Cvrlæ amitæ ex eadem nob. Curleor. stirpe
Mariæ qvoq. Reginæ a cvbicvlis, octo aunis vinc[=v]lr.
Fidæ sociæ, cvi moriens vltimvm tvlit svavivm.
Perpetvo cælibi, moribvsq. castiss. ac pientissimæ
Hippolytvs Cvrle fratris eivs f. hoc monvm.
Grati animi pietatisq. ergo lib. mer. posvit.
Hæc vltimvm vitæ diem clavsit, an^o. Dni 1620.
Ætat. LX^{mo}. die 29 Maij.
Reqviescant in pace. Amen."
The inscription under the queen's portrait is correctly given by M. W. B.;
except that, in the sixth line, the word "invidia" occurs after "hæret,"
and the "et" is omitted.
Touching this same portrait, and the selfish, silly, sight-loving
Englishman, M. Serrure writeth as follows:
"Les Anglais, si avides de tout voir quand ils sont en pays étranger,
et si curieux de tout ce qui appartient à leur histoire, ne manquent
jamais d'aller visiter l'Église de St. André. Leur admiration pour ce
monument, sans doute plus intéressant sous le rapport du souvenir qui
s'y rattache, que sous celui de l'art, va si loin, que plus d'une fois
on a prétendu, non-seulement {264} que le Portrait est un de ceux qui
retrace le plus fidèlement les traits de la malheureuse Marie Stuart,
mais qu'on a été jusqu'à l'attribuer au pinceau de Van Dyck. Aussi bon
nombre d'amateurs d'outre-mer l'ont-ils fait copier dans les derniers
temps."