The following letter, written by Horace Walpole, in relation to the
tombs, is curious. Dr. ----, whom he derides, was Dr. Zachary Pearce,
dean of Westminster, and editor of Longinus, &c.
_Strawberry-hill, 1761._
I heard lately, that Dr. ----, a very learned personage, had consented
to let the tomb of Aylmer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, a very great
personage, be removed for Wolfe’s monument; that at first he had
objected, but was wrought upon by being told that _hight_ Aylmer was a
knight templar, a very wicked set of people as his lordship had heard,
though he knew nothing of them, as they are not mentioned by Longinus. I
own I thought this a made story, and wrote to his lordship, expressing
my concern that one of the finest and most ancient monuments in the
abbey should be removed; and begging, if it was removed, that he would
bestow it on me, who would erect and preserve it here. After a
fortnight’s deliberation, the bishop sent me an answer, civil indeed,
and commending my zeal for antiquity! but avowing the story under his
own hand. He said, that at first they had taken Pembroke’s tomb for a
knight templar’s;--observe, that not only the man who shows the tombs
names it every day, but that there is a draught of it at large in Dart’s
Westminster;--that upon discovering whose it was, he had been very
unwilling to consent to the removal, and at last had obliged Wilton to
engage to set it up within ten feet of where it stands at present. His
lordship concluded with congratulating me on publishing learned authors
at my press. I don’t wonder that a man who thinks Lucan a learned
author, should mistake a tomb in his own cathedral. If I had a mind to
be angry, I could complain with reason,--as having paid forty pounds for
ground for my mother’s funeral--that the chapter of Westminster sell
their church over and over again: the ancient monuments tumble upon
one’s head through their neglect, as one of them did, and killed a man
at lady Elizabeth Percy’s funeral; and they erect new waxen dolls of
queen Elizabeth, &c. to draw visits and money from the mob.
* * * * *
~Biographical Memoranda.~