Among the Impressive Memorials in the Ancient Edifice in Which England
Lays the Bodies of Her Honored Dead Are Many That Possess
Peculiar Interest for Americans.
To be buried in Westminster Abbey, or to be honored there by a memorial
bust or tablet, is one of the highest posthumous honors that can be
accorded an Englishman. The noble old structure enshrines many of the good
and the great; and it is gratifying to Americans that a number of their
fellow countrymen are there remembered. In the Poets' Corner is a
beautiful bust of Longfellow, set up in 1884 by English admirers of the
poet.
Before the tomb of Major Andre the American visitor pauses, and doubtless
he agrees with the inscription, which says that the ill-fated Andre was
"lamented even by his foes." Andre's remains were taken to England in 1821
from Tappan, New York, where he was originally buried.
Another memorial of the Revolutionary War is a monument to the memory of
William Wragg, of South Carolina. Wragg stuck to the fortunes of England
when the colonies revolted. On his way to England he was drowned. The
monument was erected by his sister in 1779. A very beautiful urn surmounts
it, on which is pictured the incident of the shipwreck in which Mr. Wragg
was drowned.
The visitor who does not penetrate to the remotest corner of the Abbey
will look in vain for the James Russell Lowell memorial. It has been
erected in the vaulted vestibule of the old chapter-house. This
chapter-house is the most interesting feature of the entire Abbey. It is
the oldest part of the building.
Originally the assembly-hall of the members of the convent and the scene
of the floggings of the older monks, it became the meeting-place of the
Commons soon after the separation of the two houses of Parliament, in the
reign of Edward I, and it remained their meeting-place until they removed
to the Chapel of St. Stephen, in the old Westminster Palace, in 1547.
The chapter-house itself is dark and gloomy. Far more so is the passageway
which leads to it, and in the dimness of its obscurity one who looks
closely will find a small tablet bearing the bust of James Russell Lowell
in bas-relief. Above this tablet is a beautiful triple stained-glass
window to the memory of Mr. Lowell, erected by his friends in England.
The tributes to Americans which appear in the Abbey are the tributes of
their English friends and admirers. Colonel Joseph Lemuel Chester, an
American little known to his countrymen, who edited the _Westminster Abbey
Register_, figures among the distinguished dead. He was a native of
Norwich, Connecticut, but lived for many years in London, and died there
in 1882. The dean and chapter of Westminster erected the memorial to his
memory.
Though the monuments in Westminster to Americans are the gifts of
Englishmen, the old church of St. Margaret's, which stands close beside
the Abbey, holds two memorials to famous Englishmen erected by Americans.
These are a fine stained-glass window commemorating Sir Walter Raleigh,
who was buried in St. Margaret's in 1618, and another beautiful window in
honor of John Milton, whose second wife and infant child also rest in the
church. The Milton window was erected by the late George W. Childs, of
Philadelphia; the Raleigh memorial by several American subscribers.
The Beginnings of Stage Careers.