My friend Sir Roger de Coverley told me t'other night,
that he had been reading my paper upon Westminster
Abbey, "in which," says he, "there are a great many
ingenious fancies." He told me, at the same time, that
he observed I had promised another paper upon the (190: 5)
tombs, and that he should be glad to go and see them
with me, not having visited them since he had read history.
I could not at first imagine how this came into the
knight's head, till I recollected that he had been very
busy all last summer upon Baker's _Chronicle_ which he (10)
has quoted several times in his disputes with Sir Andrew
Freeport since his last coming to town. Accordingly,
I promised to call upon him the next morning, that we
might go together to the Abbey.
I found the knight under his butler's hands, who (15)
always shaves him. He was no sooner dressed than he
called for a glass of the Widow Trueby's water, which
he told me he always drank before he went abroad. He
recommended me to a dram of it at the same time with
so much heartiness that I could not forbear drinking it. (20)
As soon as I had got it down, I found it very unpalatable;
upon which the knight, observing that I had made several
wry faces, told me that he knew I should not like it at
first, but that it was the best thing in the world against
the stone or gravel. I could have wished, indeed, that (191: 5)
he had acquainted me with the virtues of it sooner; but
it was too late to complain, and I knew what he had
done was out of good-will. Sir Roger told me, further,
that he looked upon it to be very good for a man, whilst
he stayed in town, to keep off infection; and that he got (10)
together a quantity of it upon the first news of the sickness
being at Dantzic. When, of a sudden, turning short
to one of his servants, who stood behind him, he bid him
call a hackney-coach, and take care it was an elderly man
that drove it. (15)
He then resumed his discourse upon Mrs. Trueby's
water, telling me that the Widow Trueby was one who
did more good than all the doctors and apothecaries in
the county; that she distilled every poppy that grew
within five miles of her; that she distributed her water (20)
gratis among all sorts of people: to which the knight
added that she had a very great jointure, and that the
whole country would fain have it a match between him
and her; "And truly," said Sir Roger, "if I had not
been engaged,[142] perhaps I could not have done better." (25)
[142] In what sense?
His discourse was broken off by his man's telling him
he had called a coach. Upon our going to it, after having
cast his eye upon the wheels, he asked the coachman
if his axle-tree was good; upon the fellow's telling him
he would warrant it, the knight turned to me, told me he
looked like an honest man, and went in without further
ceremony.
We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping out his (192: 5)
head, called the coachman down from his box, and upon
his presenting himself at the window, asked him if he
smoked; as I was considering what this would end in,
he bid him stop by the way at any good tobacconist's,
and take in a roll of their best Virginia. Nothing material (10)
happened in the remaining part of our journey till we
were set down at the west end of the Abbey.
As we went up the body of the church, the knight
pointed at the trophies upon one of the new monuments,
and cried out, "A brave man, I warrant him!" Passing (15)
afterwards by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, he flung his hand
that way, and cried, "Sir Cloudesley Shovel! a very gallant
man!" As we stood before Busby's tomb, the knight
uttered himself again after the same manner: "Dr. Busby--a
great man! he whipped my grandfather--a very (20)
great man! I should have gone to him myself if I had
not been a blockhead;--a very great man!"
We were immediately conducted into the little chapel
on the right hand. Sir Roger, planting himself at our
historian's[143] elbow, was very attentive to everything he (25)
said, particularly to the account he gave us of the lord
who had cut off the King of Morocco's head. Among
several other figures, he was very well pleased to see the
statesman Cecil upon his knees; and, concluding them
all to be great men, was conducted to the figure which
represents that martyr to good housewifery who died by
the prick of a needle. Upon our interpreter's telling us
that she was a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, the (193: 5)
knight was very inquisitive into her name and family; and
after having regarded her finger for some time, "I wonder,"
says he, "that Sir Richard Baker has said nothing
of her in his _Chronicle_."
[143] The guide, or verger.
We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, (10)
where my old friend, after having heard that the stone
underneath the most ancient of them, which was brought
from Scotland, was called Jacob's Pillar, sat himself down
in the chair, and looking like the figure of an old Gothic
king, asked our interpreter what authority they had to say (15)
that Jacob had ever been in Scotland. The fellow, instead
of returning him an answer, told him that he hoped his
honour would pay his forfeit.[144] I could observe Sir Roger
a little ruffled upon being thus trepanned;[145] but, our guide
not insisting upon his demand, the knight soon recovered (20)
his good humour, and whispered in my ear that if Will
Wimble were with us, and saw those two chairs, it would
go hard but he would get a tobacco-stopper out of one or
t'other of them.
[144] _I.e_. for sitting down in the chair.
[145] Snared, caught. It is more properly spelled trapanned, and is not
to be confused with the verb _trepan_, to remove a piece of the skull.
Sir Roger, in the next place, laid his hand upon Edward (25)
the Third's sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it,
gave us the whole history of the Black Prince; concluding
that, in Sir Richard Baker's opinion, Edward the Third
was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon the
English throne. (194: 5)
We were then shown Edward the Confessor's tomb, upon
which Sir Roger acquainted us that he was the first who
touched for the evil; and afterwards Henry the Fourth's,
upon which he shook his head and told us there was fine
reading in the casualties of that reign. (10)
Our conductor then pointed to that monument where
there is the figure of one of our English kings without an
head; and upon giving us to know that the head, which
was of beaten silver, had been stolen away several years
since,--"Some Whig, I'll warrant you," says Sir Roger; (15)
"you ought to lock up your kings better; they will carry
off the body too, if you don't take care."
The glorious names of Henry the Fifth and Queen
Elizabeth gave the knight great opportunities of shining
and of doing justice to Sir Richard Baker, who, as our (20)
knight observed with some surprise, had a great many
kings in him whose monuments he had not seen in the
Abbey.
For my own part, I could not but be pleased to see the
knight show such an honest passion for the glory of his (25)
country, and such a respectful gratitude to the memory
of its princes.
I must not omit that the benevolence of my good old
friend, which flows out towards every one he converses
with, made him very kind to our interpreter, whom he
looked upon as an extraordinary man; for which reason
his shook him by the hand at parting, telling him that he
should be very glad to see him at his lodgings in Norfolk
Buildings, and talk over these matters with him more at (195: 5)
leisure. L.