Sir Christopher Hatton, son of William, grandson of John, of the most
ancient family of the Hattons; one of the fifty gentlemen pensioners
to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth: Gentleman of the privy chamber;
captain of the guards; one of the Privy Council, and High Chancellor
of England, and of the University of Oxford: who, to the great grief
of his Sovereign, and of all good men, ended this life religiously,
after having lived unmarried to the age of fifty-one, at his house in
Holborn, on the 20th of November, A.D. 1591.
William Hatton, knight, his nephew by his sister’s side, and by
adoption his son and heir, most sorrowfully raised this tomb, as a
mark of his duty.
On the left hand is the marble monument of William Herbert, Earl of
Pembroke, and his lady: and near it, that of John, Duke of Lancaster,
with this inscription:
Here sleeps in the Lord, John of Gant, so called from the city of the
same name of Flanders, where he was born, fourth son of Edward the
Third, King of England, and created by his father Earl of Richmond.
He was thrice married; first to Blanche, daughter and heiress of
Henry Duke of Lancaster; by her he received an immense inheritance,
and became not only Duke of Lancaster, but Earl of Leicester,
Lincoln, and Derby, of whose race are descended many emperors, kings,
princes, and nobles. His second wife was Constance, who is here
buried, daughter and heiress of Peter, King of Castile and Leon, in
whose right he most justly {17} took the style of King of Castile and
Leon. She brought him one only daughter, Catherine, of whom, by
Henry, are descended the Kings of Spain. His third wife was
Catherine, of a knight’s family, a woman of great beauty, by whom he
had a numerous progeny; from which is descended, by the mother’s
side, Henry the Seventh, the most prudent King of England, by whose
most happy marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward the Fourth, of
the line of York, the two royal lines of Lancaster and York are
united, to the most desired tranquillity of England.
The most illustrious prince, John, surnamed Plantagenet, King of
Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, Leicester, and
Derby, Lieutenant of Aquitain, High Steward of England, died in the
twenty-first year of Richard II., A.D. 1398.
A little farther, almost at the entrance of the choir, in a certain
recess, are two small stone chests, one of which is thus inscribed:
Here lies Seba, King of the East Saxons, who was converted to the
faith by St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London, A.D. 677.
On the other:
Here lies Ethelred, King of the Angles, son of King Edgar,
On whom St. Dustan is said to have denounced vengeance, on his
coronation day, in the following words:—“Inasmuch as thou hast
aspired to the throne by the death of thy brother, against whose
blood the English, along with thy infamous mother, conspired, the
sword shall not pass from thy house! but rage all the days of thy
life, afflicting all thy generation, till thy kingdom shall be
translated to another, whose manner and language the people under
thee knoweth not. Nor shall thy sin be done away till after long
chastisement, nor the sin of thy mother, nor the sin of those men who
assisted in thy wicked council.”
All which came to pass as predicted by the saint; for after being
worsted and put to flight by Sueno King of the Danes, and his son
Canute, and at last closely besieged in London, he died miserably
A.D. 1017, after he had reigned thirty-six years in great
difficulties.
There is besides in the middle of the church a tomb made of brass, of
some Bishop of London, named William, who was in favour with Edward, King
of England, and afterwards made counsellor to King William. He was
bishop sixteen years, and died A.D. 1077. Near this is the following
inscription:
Virtue survives the funeral.
To the memory of
Thomas Linacre, an eminent physician, John Caius placed this
monument.
On the lower part of it is this inscription in gold letters:
Thomas Linacre, physician to King Henry VIII., a man learned in the
Greek and Latin languages, and particularly skilful in physick, by
which he restored many from a state of languishment and despair to
life. He translated with extraordinary eloquence many of Galen’s
works into Latin; and published, a little before his death, at the
request of his friends, a very valuable book on the correct structure
of the Latin tongue. He founded in perpetuity in favour of students
in physick, two public lectures at Oxford, and one at Cambridge. In
this city he brought about, by his own industry, the establishing of
a College of Physicians, of which he was elected the first president.
He was a detester of all fraud and deceit, and faithful in his
friendships; equally dear to men of all ranks: he went into orders a
few years before his death, and quitted this life full of years, and
much lamented, A.D. 1524, on the 29th of October.
There are many tombs in this church, but without any inscriptions. It
has a very fine organ, which, at evening prayer, accompanied with other
instruments, is delightful.
In the suburb to the west, joined to the city by a continual row of
palaces belonging to the chief nobility, of a mile in length, and lying
on the side next the Thames, is the small town of Westminster; originally
called Thorney, from its thorn bushes, but now Westminster, from its
aspect and its monastery. The church is remarkable for the coronation
and burial of the Kings of England. Upon this spot is said formerly to
have stood a temple of Apollo, which was thrown down by an earthquake in
the time of Antoninus Pius; from the ruins of which Sebert, King of the
East Saxons, erected another to St. Peter: this was subverted by the
Danes, and again renewed by Bishop Dunstan, who gave it to a few monks.
Afterwards, King Edward the Confessor built it entirely new, with the
tenth of his whole revenue, to be the place of his own burial, and a
convent of Benedictine monks; and enriched it with estates dispersed all
over England.
In this church the following things are worthy of notice:
In the first choir, the tomb of Anne of Cleves, wife of Henry VIII.,
without any inscription.
On the opposite side are two stone sepulchres: (1) Edward, Earl of
Lancaster, brother of Edward I.; (2) Ademar of Valence, Earl of
Pembroke, son of Ademar of Valence. Joining to these is (3) that of
Aveline, Countess of Lancaster.
In the second choir is the chair on which the kings are seated when they
are crowned; in it is enclosed a stone, said to be that on which the
patriarch Jacob slept when he dreamed he saw a ladder reaching quite up
into heaven. Some Latin verses are written upon a tablet hanging near
it; the sense of which is:
That if any faith is to be given to ancient chronicles, a stone of
great note is enclosed in this chair, being the same on which the
patriarch Jacob reposed when he beheld the miraculous descent of
angels. Edward I., the Mars and Hector of England, having conquered
Scotland, brought it from thence.
The tomb of Richard II. and his wife, of brass, gilt, and these verses
written round it:
Perfect and prudent, Richard, by right the Second,
Vanquished by Fortune, lies here now graven in stone,
True of his word, and thereto well renound:
Seemly in person, and like to Homer as one
In worldly prudence, and ever the Church in one
Upheld and favoured, casting the proud to ground,
And all that would his royal state confound.
Without the tomb is this inscription:
Here lies King Richard, who perished by a cruel death, in the year
1369.
To have been happy is additional misery.
Near him is the monument of his queen, daughter of the Emperor
Wenceslaus.
On the left hand is the tomb of Edward I., with this inscription:
Here lies Edward I., who humbled the Scots. A.D. 1308.
Be true to your engagements.
He reigned forty-six years.
The tomb of Edward III., of copper, gilt, with this epitaph:
Of English kings here lieth the beauteous flower
Of all before past, and myrror to them shall sue:
A merciful king, of peace conservator,
The third Edward, &c.
Besides the tomb are these words:
Edward III., whose fame has reached to heaven. A.D. 1377.
Fight for your country.
Here is shown his sword, eight feet in length, which they say he used in
the conquest of France.
His queen’s epitaph:
Here lies Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. Learn to live. A.D.
1369.
At a little distance, the tomb of Henry V., with this legend:
Henry, the scourge of France, lies in this tomb. Virtue subdues all
things. A.D. 1422.
Near this lies the coffin of Catherine, unburied, and to be opened by
anyone that pleases. On the outside is this inscription:
Fair Catherine is at length united to her lord. A.D. 1437.
Shun idleness.
The tomb of Henry III., of brass, gilt, with this epitaph:
Henry III., the founder of this cathedral. A.D. 1273. War is
delightful to the unexperienced.
It was this Henry who, one hundred and sixty years after Edward the
Confessor had built this church, took it down, and raised an entire new
one of beautiful architecture, supported by rows of marble columns, and
its roof covered with sheets of lead, a work of fifty years before its
completion. It has been much enlarged at the west end by the abbots.
After the expulsion of the monks, it experienced many changes; first it
had a dean and prebendaries; then a bishop, who, having squandered the
revenues, resigned it again to a dean. In a little time, the monks with
their abbot were reinstated by Queen Mary; but, they being soon ejected
again by authority of parliament, it was converted into a cathedral
church—nay, into a seminary for the Church—by Queen Elizabeth, who
instituted there twelve prebendaries, an equal number of invalid
soldiers, and forty scholars; who at a proper time are elected into the
universities, and are thence transplanted into the Church and State.
Next to be seen is the tomb of Eleanor, daughter of Alphonso King of
Spain, and wife of Edward I., with this inscription:
This Eleanor was consort of Edward I.
A.D. 1298. Learn to die.
The tomb of Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VII.
In the middle of this chapel is the shrine of St. Edward, the last King
of the Saxons. It is composed of marble in mosaic: round it runs this
inscription in letters of gold:
The venerable king, St. Edward the Confessor,
A heroe adorned with every virtue.
He died on the 5th of January, 1065,
And mounted into Heaven.
Lift up your hearts.
The third choir, of surprising splendour and elegance, was added to the
east end by Henry VII. for a burying-place for himself and his posterity.
Here is to be seen his magnificent tomb, wrought of brass and marble,
with this epitaph:
Here lies Henry VII. of that name, formerly King of England, son of
Edmund, Earl of Richmond, who, ascending the throne on the
twenty-second day of August, was crowned on the thirtieth of October
following at Westminster, in the year of our Lord 1485. He died on
the twenty-first of April, in the fifty-third year of his age, after
a reign of twenty-two years and eight months wanting a day.
This monument is enclosed with rails of brass, with a long epitaph in
Latin verse.
Under the same tomb lies buried Edward VI., King of England, son of Henry
VIII. by Jane Seymour. He succeeded to his father when he was but nine
years old, and died A.T. 1553, on the 6th of July, in the sixteenth year
of his age, and of his reign the seventh, not without suspicion of
poison.
Mary was proclaimed queen by the people on the 19th of July, and died in
November, 1558, and is buried in some corner of the same choir, without
any inscription.
Queen Elizabeth.
Here lies Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., sister of King
Edward V., wife of Henry VII., and the glorious mother of Henry VIII.
She died in the Tower of London, on the eleventh of February, A.D.
1502, in the thirty-seventh year of her age.
Between the second and third choirs in the side-chapels, are the tombs of
Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who built this church with stone: and
Of Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., grandmother of Henry
VIII.; she gave this monastery to the monks of Winbourne, {27} who
preached and taught grammar all England over, and appointed salaries to
two professors of divinity, one at Oxford, another at Cambridge, where
she founded two colleges to Christ and to John His disciple. She died
A.D. 1463, on the third of the calends of July.
And of Margaret, Countess of Lenox, grandmother of James VI., King of
Scotland.
William of Valance, half-brother of Henry III.
The Earl of Cornwall, brother of Edward III.
Upon another tomb is an honorary inscription for Frances, Duchess of
Suffolk. The sense of it is,
That titles, royal birth, riches, or a large family, are of no avail:
That all are transitory; virtue alone resisting the funeral pile.
That this lady was first married to a duke, then to Stoke, a
gentleman;
And lastly, by the grave espoused to CHRIST.
The next is the tomb of Lord Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, whose
lady composed the following Greek and Latin verses, and had them engraved
on the marble:—
How was I startled at the cruel feast,
By death’s rude hands in horrid manner drest;
Such grief as sure no hapless woman knew,
When thy pale image lay before my view.
Thy father’s heir in beauteous form arrayed
Like flowers in spring, and fair, like them to fade;
Leaving behind unhappy wretched me,
And all thy little orphan-progeny:
Alike the beauteous face, the comely air,
The tongue persuasive, and the actions fair,
Decay: so learning too in time shall waste:
But faith, chaste lovely faith, shall ever last.
The once bright glory of his house, the pride
Of all his country, dusty ruins hide:
Mourn, hapless orphans; mourn, once happy wife;
For when he died, died all the joys of life.
Pious and just, amidst a large estate,
He got at once the name of good and great.
He made no flatt’ring parasite his guest,
But asked the good companions to the feast.
Anne, Countess of Oxford, daughter of William Cecil, Baron Burleigh, and
Lord Treasurer.
Philippa, daughter and co-heiress of John, Lord Mohun of Dunster, wife of
Edward, Duke of York.
Frances, Countess of Sussex, of the ancient family of Sidney.
Thomas Bromley, Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth.
The Earl of Bridgewater, {29} Lord Dawbney, Lord Chamberlain to Henry
VII., and his lady.
And thus much for Westminster.
There are many other churches in this city, but none so remarkable for
the tombs of persons of distinction.
Near to this church is Westminster Hall, where, besides the Sessions of
Parliament, which are often held there, are the Courts of Justice; and at
stated times are heard their trials in law, or concerning the king’s
patrimony, or in chancery, which moderates the severity of the common law
by equity. Till the time of Henry I. the Prime Court of Justice was
movable, and followed the King’s Court, but he enacted by the Magna
Charta that the common pleas should no longer attend his Court, but be
held at some determined place. The present hall was built by King
Richard II. in the place of an ancient one which he caused to be taken
down. He made it part of his habitation (for at that time the Kings of
England determined causes in their own proper person, and from the days
of Edward the Confessor had their palace adjoining), till, above sixty
years since, upon its being burnt, Henry VIII. removed the royal
residence to Whitehall, situated in the neighbourhood, which a little
before was the house of Cardinal Wolsey. This palace is truly royal,
enclosed on one side by the Thames, on the other by a park, which
connects it with St. James’s, another royal palace.
In the chamber where the Parliament is usually held, the seats and
wainscot are made of wood, the growth of Ireland; said to have that
occult quality, that all poisonous animals are driven away by it; and it
is affirmed for certain, that in Ireland there are neither serpents,
toads, nor any other venomous creature to be found.
Near this place are seen an immense number of swans, who wander up and
down the river for some miles, in great security; nobody daring to
molest, much less kill any of them, under penalty of a considerable fine.