[Illustration: TOMB OF CURRAN.]
Twenty years had nearly elapsed, and no stone marked the grate where
Curran was interred: still Ireland continued unpossessed of the remains
of one of the ablest of her orators and purest of her patriots, and
seemed, in this instance especially, to justify the reproach of her
habitual neglect towards the posthumous reputation of her great men.
To the managing committee of the cemetery at Glasnevin belongs the
merit, in this eminent instance, of setting an example which may remove
or mitigate the humiliating truth of that too just reproach.[1] They
reclaimed for Ireland the bones of Curran, which were transferred from
England to the cemetery over which they preside.
To Lord Cloncurry, ever foremost or forward in aught affecting the public
weal, and through life distinguished as the munificent supporter of all
the elegant and useful arts--of every object proposing to advance the
interests of his country or honour of her name--to him belongs the merit
of originating a subscription from which has resulted the monument at
Glasnevin, and the other now in progress at the church of St Patrick.[2]
Thus at the northern extremity of Dublin the tomb of Curran stands
over his remains; and at the southern extremity, in our metropolitan
Cathedral Church, which may be called our little Westminster, a cenotaph,
now begun, will soon bear witness that after a lapse of 23 years, new
recorded honours gather round his monument, and his glory still freshens
in the memory of posterity.
A senior fellow of our University, who had no other share in his
subsequent elevation to a mitre than the circumstance of having rendered
himself worthy of it, observes on the subject of this commemoration as
follows:--“It (a letter) shows me, however, that you intended to apply
to me on a subject well calculated to excite my sympathy; and it gives
me an opportunity of indulging my own feelings, and of promoting my own
honour, in avowing my admiration and respect for splendid talents and
disinterested patriotism. I shall therefore be flattered by the insertion
of my name in your list, though I do not entertain the ambitious thought
of my doing honour to the memory of a man who has erected for himself a
monument greater and more lasting than can be contained in any cemetery.”
The wood-cut engraving prefixed to this article is descriptive of
Curran’s tomb at Glasnevin, of which Mr J. T. Papworth, A.R.H.A.,
architect of the Royal Dublin Society, was the architect, and conductor
of its construction and successful execution. It is a fac simile of
the celebrated chef-d’œuvre of the antique known as the tomb of Scipio
Barbatious, exemplars of which are favourite objects of purchase to the
visiters of Rome, and lovers of virtu. It is a magnificent specimen of
that simple, durable, massive grandeur, which the early artists of the
mistress of the world deemed suitable to the character of a great man’s
sepulchre; fit to outlive, like its great Roman prototype, numerous
generations of men, and bear down the name of its honoured object to the
admiration of a most distant posterity. Napoleon’s tomb at St Helena was
of course the suggestion of the best taste of France and Italy combined.
It bears a close resemblance to that of Scipio. The material of the
latter is of an inferior description of stone, greatly surpassed by
that of Curran’s tomb, which is composed of the best specimen, perhaps,
extant, of our finest Irish granite, and sparkles like silver in the
sun. The application of this product to sepulchral purposes is recent
and appropriate. The late palace of our dukes, the late halls of our
parliament, the testimonials commemorating the victors who most exalted
the glory of Britain on the ocean and by land, our custom-house and
post-office, our courts of justice, the harbours of Wicklow, Howth, and
Dunleary, the spire of St Patrick’s, the grandest of our bridges, with
most other of our magnificent public edifices, have long displayed and
will long display the value of our granite for beauty and solidity. It
has superseded the use of Portland stone, for, capable of being cut into
the finer figures of architecture, it admits of any shape, it withstands
any weather; and harder than freestone, and hardening in the air, and
susceptible of every formation from the chisel, the mallet, and the
hammer, it stands of all the mineral kingdom most faithful to the trust
of monumental fame. But it is not by such memorials, as was justly
observed by the eminent prelate already referred to; it is not by such
memorials as art may construct from marble or brass, or our own enduring
granite, that the immortality of Curran’s fame can be achieved, it is in
the great efforts of his transcendant genius we best can contemplate his
deathless monument, and in that respect it may be said of him as Johnson
said on a like occasion,
“A mortal born, he met a mortal’s doom,
But left, like Egypt’s kings, a lasting tomb.”
The tomb is in the form of a Sarcophagus, of the Doric order of
architecture, richly sculptured. The triglyphs are most delicately
wrought, and the metopes are ornamented with pateras. It is erected so as
to appear upon a tumulus, which has a good effect. The dimensions are as
follow:--
The plinth 11 feet 2¼ inches by 5 feet 6½ inches.
The dado 8 feet 11 inches by 3 feet 8½ inches.
Height 8 feet 2 inches.
The blocks of granite of which the tomb has been formed are perhaps the
largest made use of in Ireland, each weighing from 4 to 5 tons. The
joints between the blocks have been so managed as to be imperceptible,
and the tomb thus appears to be one entire mass of granite.