In the pavement six small artificial grooves mark the spot where rested
the pillars of the shrine, weighed down by the accumulated riches with
which it was loaded in the shape of votive offerings.
On the north side is the Rood-loft--a carved Gothic shrine of oak, in
the upper part of which, behind a lattice-work, the monks kept constant
watch over the sacred treasures, while the pilgrims knelt at the shrine.
In the floor several hollows are observable around the spot--worn, it is
said, by the successive crowds whose “penitential knees” subjected the
stone during centuries to perpetual friction and pressure. Such an
effect is by no means improbable. Whoever has witnessed the fervour with
which that ancient bronze, the statue of St. Peter at Rome, is saluted
by a continual stream of pilgrims, will not be surprised to find that
the same spirit of devotion has left a deep impression on the hard
pavement of St. Albans. We do not “speak irreverently;” where so many
tears have undoubtedly been shed, so many sins confessed, it is pleasing
to indulge the belief that the sincerity, if not the form, was accepted;
that many a heavy heart, many an oppressed conscience, has here found
relief, and formed lasting resolutions of amendment.
“Prostrate on this cold stone, what tears and sighs
Have pour’d from breaking hearts the sacrifice!”
The clerk, who is well informed, and a professed collector of
curiosities, showed us several skulls and bones which had been found in
the adjoining fields[73]--some of which, from their gigantic
proportions, are worth inspection.
[Illustration]
One or more sepulchral brasses are also deserving of notice, one in
particular--that of an Abbot, richly carved, of large dimensions, and
affording a fine specimen of the state of the art in his day. How it
escaped the soldiers of Cromwell--the greatest “collectors” of their
age--is a mystery The guide has taken some very good impressions of this
and other objects by a very simple process, for the accommodation of
intending purchasers. But the grand object of attraction is the
<g>Shrine-Tomb</g> of the good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, whose unhappy
destiny is familiar to every reader of English history. This tomb was
erected during the abbacy of Whethamstead, who, for his taste and
knowledge of architecture, has been justly styled the “Wykeham” of his
time. The description, which may be seen in the printed history, and
equally applicable at all times, is here omitted; for, where the
engraving of the subject is presented to the reader, the necessity of
description is much obviated, and the writer is thus permitted to dwell
at greater length on the interesting portion of history with which the
subject is connected.--A detailed account of this shrine is given in
Blore’s “Sepulchral Antiquities,” Part the third.
The character of this unfortunate Prince has been represented under
different aspects by the writers of his day; but by far the majority
bear willing testimony to his virtues, to his personal accomplishments,
to his liberal encouragement of science and literature, in which he
himself had acquired some merited distinction. At that epoch, however,
the sword was too indispensable, peace and tranquillity were too little
felt and enjoyed, to allow much scope for the more humanizing studies
and pursuits. The dawn of science was still but an indistinct speck in
the horizon; and the few who had already tasted the sweets of literature
were continually roused from their intellectual feast by the clang of
arms, and the shouts of fresh combatants.
It was under such unpropitious circumstances that Humphrey the Good gave
his heart to letters; but with armed hand sought those means for its
prosecution which were never to be realized. The history of his life and
death may be comprised in a few sentences, and in doing so we give a
ready preference to the authority of old Grafton, with only slight
alterations in the orthography:--“Divers articles,” says he, “both
heynous and odious, were laid to hys, the Duke’s, charge in open
counsayle, and in especial one, that he had caused men, adjudged to die,
to be put to other execution than the law of the land had ordered or
assigned: for surely the Duke, being very well learned in the law civil,
detesting malefactors, and punishing their offences, gat great malice
and hatred of such as feared to have condign reward for their ungracious
actes and mischievous doings. Although the Duke, not without great laud
and praise, sufficiently answered to all things to him objected; yet,
because his death was determined, his wisdom little helped nor his truth
smally availed; but of this unquietness of mind he delivered himself,
because he thought neither of death, nor of condemnation to die, such
affiance had he in his strong truth, and such confidence had he in
indifferent justice. But his capital enemies and mortal foes, fearing
that some tumult or commotion might arise, if a prince so well beloved
of the people should be openly executed and put to death, determined to
trap and undo him ere he thereof should have knowledge or warning. So,
for the furtherance of their purpose, a parliament was summoned to be
kept at Bury, whither resorted all the Peers of the realm, and amongst
them the Duke of Gloucester, which, on the second day of the session,
was by the Lord Beaumont, then High Constable of England, accompanied by
the Duke of Buckingham and others, arrested, apprehended, and put in
ward, and all his servants sequestered from him, and thirty-two of the
chief of his retinue sent to divers prisons, to the great admiration and
surprise of the common people. The night after his imprisonment the Duke
was found dead in his bed, being the twenty-fourth day of February, and
his body showed to the Lords and Commons, as though he had died of a
palsey or impostume. But all indifferent persons well knew,” continues
the Chronicle, “that he died of no natural death, but of some violent
force; some judged him to be strangled, others write that he was stifled
or smoldered between two feather-beds.”
“The dead corpse of this Duke was caryed to Saint Albans, and there
honourably buryed. Thus this noble prince, son, brother, and uncle to
kings, which had valiantly and politiquely, by the space of twenty-five
years, governed this realm, and for his merits was called ‘The good Duke
of Gloucester,’
[Illustration]
was, by a bone cast by his enemies, choked and brought to his fatal fine
and last ende.” This Duke Humphrey was “not only valyant and noble in
all his acts and doings, but sage, politique, and notably well learned
in the civil law.”[74] In proof of this, the reader may refer to an
amusing anecdote of him in Sir Thomas More’s “Dialogue concerning
Heresies,” &c., chap. xiv.; also, to Shakspeare’s Henry VI., Act II.,
Scene I. The good Duke is also said to have “builded the Divinitie
Schole at Oxford, which is a rare pece of worke.”
<g>The Vault</g> in which the “good Duke’s” remains had been deposited, was
only discovered by accident early in the last century. When “first
opened, the body was found in a leaden coffin, in perfect preservation,
and floating in a strong pickle, which, however, on being exposed, soon
evaporated and left the body to decay. At the foot of the coffin was
painted on the wall a picture of the crucifixion, with a chalice at each
hand, a second at the side, and a third at the feet, to receive the
blood trickling from the Saviour’s wounds, with a hand extending from
the dust with this scroll--“Blessed Lorde haue mercye on mee.” This
painting is still visible on the stone of the vault, which was
remarkably dry in January last, and of a temperature considerably higher
than that of the chancel above. The skull, which shows the intellectual
characteristics of the phrenologists, and a great portion of the
skeleton, are still left; but no care having been taken of it for many
years after its discovery, various portions were appropriated by
relic-hunters, and other conveyancers of anatomy.
In the summer of 1765--as related in the Topographical Library, article
Hertfordshire--David Garrick and Quin, who was remarkably fond of good
living, made a trip to St. Albans; where, on visiting the Abbey church,
and being shown the bones of Duke Humphrey, Quin jocosely lamented that
so many aromatics and such a quantity of spirits should have been wasted
in preserving a dead body. After their return to dinner, and whilst the
wine was circulating, Garrick took out his pencil and composed the
following verses, which he termed