Honoured Madam,
AS I have the pleasure to find that my letters, however mean in
themselves, are agreeable to my dear parent, I shall continue my
account of some of those many curiosities which I saw in
Westminster-Abbey. Among the monuments of our ancient Kings is that
of Henry V. whose effigy has lost its head, which being of silver, I
am told, was stolen in the civil wars.
Here are two coffins covered with velvet, in which are said to be
the bodies of two Ambassadors, detained here for debt; but what were
their names, or what Princes they served, I could not learn.
Our guide next showed us the body of King Henry the Fifth's Queen,
Catherine, in an open coffin, who is said to have been a very
beautiful Princess; but whose shrivelled skin, much resembling
discoloured parchment, may now serve as a powerful antidote to that
vanity with which frail beauty is apt to inspire its possessors.
Among the waxen effigies, I had almost forgot to mention King
Charles II. and his faithful servant General Monk, whose furious
aspect has something terrible in it.
Not far from these is the figure of a lady, one of the Maids of
Honour to Queen Elizabeth, who is said to have bled to death by only
pricking her finger with a needle.
I must now return to those monuments, which are in the open part of
the church, and free to every one's sight; for those I have been
speaking of are inclosed [sic], and not to be seen without a small
gratuity to the conductor.
Among these, then, on the north side, stands a magnificent monument
erected to Lady Carteret, for whose death some reports assign a
cause something odd, viz. the late French King Louis the XIV.'s
saying, That a lady (whom one of his Nobles compared to Lady
Carteret) was handsomer than she.
Near this stands a grand monument of Lord De Courcy, with an
inscription, signifying that one of his ancestors had obtained a
privilege of wearing his hat before the King.
Next these follow a groupe [sic] of Statesmen, Warriors, Musicians,
&c. among whom is Col. Bingfield, who lost his head by a cannon
ball, as he was remounting the Duke of Marlborough, whose horse had
been shot under him.
The famous musicians Purcell, Gibbons, Blow, and Crofts, have here
their respective monuments and inscriptions; as has also that
eminent painter Sir Godfrey Kneller, with an elegant epitaph by Mr.
Pope. As you enter the west door of the church, on the right hand
stands a monument with a curious figure of Secretary Craggs, on whom
likewise Mr. Pope has bestowed a beautiful epitaph. On the south
side is a costly monument, erected by Queen Anne to the memory of
that brave Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel, who was shipwrecked on the
rocks of Scilly. In the same aisle, and nearly opposite to this, is
a beautiful monument of white marble, to the memory of Thomas
Thynne, of Long-Leat, in the county of Wilts, Esq. who was shot in
his coach, on Sunday the 12th of February, 1682: In the front is
cut the figure of him in his coach, with those of the three
assassins who murdered him. At the end of this aisle, and on one
side of what is called the Poets' Row, lies covered with a handsome
monument, and his effigy a large as the life, the very famous Dr.
Busby, Master of Westminster School, whose strict discipline and
severity are every where so much talked of.
I must now take notice of the Poets, whose monuments stand mostly
contiguous. Here are the ancient monuments of Chaucer and Spencer,
with those of Ben Johnson, Drayton, Milton, and Butler; also of the
great Dryden, the ingenious Phillips, the divine Cowley, the
harmonious Prior, and the inimitable Shakespeare, of whose curious
effigy I have spoken before: nor must I omit the gentle Mr. John
Gay, to whose memory his Grace the Duke of Queensberry has erected a
noble monument, which Mr. Pope has adorned with a very elegant
inscription in verse. I must here end my remarks, but cannot take
leave of this venerable place, without observing, that it has many
curious painted windows, a noble choir, a fine organ, and a
magnificent altar-piece.