"Si quæras viator! quis hic jacet? Paucis habe. Fui Franciscus Parker. Londini natus, eductus Cantabrigiæ, ubi obtinui, nescio an merui, artium magistri gradum: inservij Dominis Francisco, Roberto, Fulconi Brooke, a studijs, ab epistolis, a rationibus: amos præterpropter quadraginta quinque: quam integre quam assidue superstites, qui norunt, dicant; decessi Londini in ædibus, quibus plerusq; degeram, Brookkianis, 10 die Novembris, Anno Dom. 1693, Et. 67. Cum dominis meis iuxta abdormiscentibus resurgens, lætus audiam, Euge bone et fidelis serve." Which may be thus Englished, "If you ask, Traveller, who lies here? Briefly receive an answer: I was Francis Parker, born at London, educated at Cambridge, where I obtained (I know not whether I deserved it) the degree of master of arts. I served the Lords Francis, Robert, Fulk Brook, in the character of tutor, secretary, and steward, for almost forty-five years; with what integrity and assiduity, let the survivors, who know it, declare: I died at London, in the house belonging to the Brooks, where I generally lived, on the 10th of November, in the year of our Lord 1693, of my age 67. When I rise again with my Lord's who are sleeping near me, may I joyful hear, "Well "done, thou good and faithful servant!" This example of honourable gratitude in his ancestor, has been followed by the present Earl, in a tribute to the memory of another domestic, by a sepulchral tablet, bearing the following testimony to his faithful services: "If a faithful discharge of duty, and the most honest, diligent, and attached conduct, for a long course of years, ever claims the expression of gratitude, it is due to the memory of John Bagley, who departed this life on the 15th day of September 1792, aged 65 years, and lies interred near this place. "As a memorial of his regard for an excellent servant, and a worthy man, whose loss he much laments, this stone was erected by George Earl of Warwick, 1793." But the lady's chapel, the northern chapel, and the choir, far eclipse the other part of the fabric in the splendour of their monuments, some of which afford the finest examples in the kingdom of sepulchral sculpture. The first of these, built at a time when popular superstition attached the idea of miraculous power to the relics of martyrs and the figures of saints, displays, in its fillagreed niches and exquisitely-worked shrines (the rich depositories of their wonder-working trumpery) the cost and labour that were exhausted on their account. We view with wonder the nicety and variety of these elaborate ornaments, particularly on observing that they are wrought out of the common sand-stone of the neighbourhood. But our attention was soon directed from these decorations to another specimen of ancient art, in the marble tomb of Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, the most splendid table monument in this kingdom. He was the 건 founder by will of this beautiful chapel, which occupied twenty-one years in building, from 1443 to 1464, and, together with his tomb, consumed the sum of 24811. 48. 7d. equal at present to 40,000l. On the top of it lies the effigy of that nobleman, clad in armour; at his head a swan, at his right foot a muzzled bear, at his left foot a griffin; the whole (together with a raised latticework frame covering the figure) of brass, double gilt. The faces of the tomb are studded with fourteen brazen images, noble personages, male and female; they are as follow:-At the head, Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick, and Lady Cecil his wife; at the foot, George Neville Lord Latimer, and Elizabeth his wife: on the north side, Alice wife to Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury; Eleanor daughter to Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, and wife to Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset; Anne daughter of Ralph Nevil Earl of Westmoreland, wife to Humphrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham; Margaret eldest daughter to Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, and wife to John Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury; Anne daughter to Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, wife to Richard Earl of Salisbury; on the south side, Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury: Edward Beaufort Duke of Somerset, Humphrey Stafford Duke of . 1 Buckingham, John Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick. Another grand marble monument, on the north side of the chapel, bears the finely-sculptured statues of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester and Lettice his wife. To the memory of the latter a tablet attached to the wall is inscribed with the following lines, by Gervas Clifton, no mean poet of the day. The lines are full of those concettos which made the wit of the times, and partake much of the manner of Cowley, whose offspring is always injured by the efforts of parturition. She died upon Christmas-day in the morning, 1634: "Look in this vault and search it well, "Our wealth was carried this away; "And that the theft might ne'er be found, ""Tis bury'd closely under ground; "Yet if you gently stir the mould, "There all our loss you may behold; "There may you see that face, that hand, "Which once was fairest in the land. "She that in her younger years "Match'd with two great English peers, "She that did supply the wars "With thunder, and the court with stars; "She that in her youth had been ""Till she was content to quit "Her favour for her favourite, "Whose gold thread when she saw spun, Thought it safest to retire "From all care and vain desire "To a private country cell; "Where she spent her days so well, "That to her the better sort "Came as to an holy court; "Not from Him, but from us all; "To solemnize his own birth-day." The monument of Ambrose Dudley Earl of Warwick, comes next, bearing on its table top the figure of the nobleman clad in armour; shields and achievements finely cut adorn this tomb. Another, to the memory of the noble impe Robert of Dudley, as the inscription says, stands on the south side of the chapel; he was the young son of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester.-After this rich regale of old English sculpture, it would be ungrateful to |