CHAP. IV. question thrice repeated by one who found him standing with folded arms and eyes riveted on the fourth knight, whose lips seem just opening to address the bystander. By a natural The Veres and Beau affinity, the tomb of Sir Francis Vere drew after it, clercs, 1702. a century later, the last of his descendants into the same vault-Aubrey de Vere, the last Earl of Oxford, and afterwards the Beauclerk family, through the marriage of the Duke of St. Albans with his daughter and heiress, Diana de Sir George Vere. Close beside is Sir George Holles, his kinsman Holles, 1626. and comrade in arms-on a monument as far removed 1 Cunningham's Handbook, p. 42. This same story is told of the figure on the N.W. corner of the Norris tomb from mediæval times as that of Sir Francis Vere draws near to them. The tall statue stands, not, like that of Vere, modestly apart from the wall, but on the site of the altar once dedicated to the Confessor's favourite saint-the first in the Abbey that stands erect; the first that wears, not the costume of the time, but that of a Roman general; the first monument which, in its sculpture, reproduces the events in which the hero was engaged-the Battle of Nieuport. He, like Vere, attracted to the spot his later descendants; and for the sake of the neighbourhood of his own and his wife's ancestors a hundred years later, rose the gigantic monument of John Holles, Duke of Newcastle,' who lies at the feet of his illustrious namesake." Deeper yet into these chapels the Flemish trophies penetrate. Against the wall, which must have held the altar of the Chapel of St. Andrew, is the mural tablet of John de Burgh, De Burgh, who fell in boarding a Spanish ship; and in front of 1594. it rises a monument, if less beautiful than that of Vere, yet of more stirring interest, and equally connected with the wars in that old cockpit of Europe.' We have seen that on the other side of the Abbey was interred Catherine Knollys, the faithful attendant of Anne Boleyn. We now come to a continuation of the same mark of respect on the part of Elizabeth -not often shown, it is said-for those who had been steadfast to her mother's cause, and, curiously enough, to a house with which the family of Knollys was in constant strife. Sir Francis Knollys, the husband of Catherine Carey, and Treasurer of the Queen's Household, perhaps from their neighbourhood in Oxfordshire, was a deadly rival to Henry Norris. The Norris 'Queen Elizabeth loved the Knollyses for themselves; family. 'the Norrises for themselves and herself. The Norrises got more honour abroad; the Knollyses more profit at home, continuing constantly at court; and no wonder, if they were the warmest who sate next the fire.' Henry Norris was the son of that unhappy man who, alone of all those who perished 1 Dart, ii. 2. 3 2 Another Holles-Francis, son of the Earl of Clare, who died at the age of Francis eighteen, on his return from Holles, 1622. the Flemish war a few years later-sits, like his namesake, in Roman costume in St. Edmund's Chapel, 'a 'figure of most antique simplicity and 'beauty.' (Horace Walpole.) His pedestal was copied from that on which, in a similar attitude, close by, sits Elizabeth Russell (see p. 184). The like sentiment of a premature death probably caused this twin-like companionship. The close of his epitaph deserves notice: Man's life is measured by his work, not days, No aged sloth, but active youth, hath praise. For the Holles monuments the sculptor, Stone, received respectively £100 and £50 from Lord Clare. (Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, iì. 59.) 3 Biog. Britannica. Henry Lord Norris, 6 John Norris, on the scaffold with Anne Boleyn, denied or was silent as to her guilt. Elizabeth, it is believed, expressed her gratitude for the chivalry of the father by her favour to the son. He was further endeared to her by the affection she had for his wife, Margaret, daughter of Lord William of Thame, whom, from her swarthy complexion, the Queen called her own 'crow.' By his marriage with Margaret, Henry 1608. Norris inherited Rycote in Oxfordshire, where, according to his expressed intention, the local tradition maintains that he is buried. The monument in the Abbey, however, is a tribute, by their kindred, not only to himself, but to the noble acts, the valour, and high worth of that right valiant and warlike progeny of his-a brood of martial'spirited men, as the Netherlands, Portugal, Little Bretagne, and Ireland can testify.'3 William, John, Thomas, Henry, Maximilian, and Edward, are all represented on the tomb, probably actual likenesses. All, except John' and Edward, fell in battle. John died of vexation at losing the Lord 1598. Lieutenancy of Ireland, and the Queen, to whose hardness he owed his neglect, repaired the wrong too late, by one of those stately letters, which she only could write, consoling my own crow' for the loss of her son. Though nothing 'more consolatory and pathetical could be written from a Prince, yet the death of the son went so near the heart of the • Earl, his ancient father, that he died soon after.' Edward alone survived his father and brothers; and, accordNorris, 1604. ingly, he alone is represented, not, as the others, in an attitude of prayer, but looking cheerfully upwards. They 'were men of haughty courage, and of great experience in the 'conduct of military affairs; and, to speak in the character ' of their merit, they were persons of such renown and worth, as future time must, out of duty, owe them the debt of hon'ourable memory.' That honourable memory has long ago perished from the minds of men; but still, as preserved in this monument, it well closes the glories of the Elizabethan court and camp in the Abbey." Edward 5 6 One other monument of the wars of those times, though of a comparatively unknown warrior, and located in what must then have been an obscure and solitary place in the South Aisle of the Choir, carries us to a wider field. To the glory of the Lord of Hosts, here resteth Sir Richard Bingham, Knight, who fought not only in Scotland and Ireland, but in 'the Isle of Candy under the Venetians, at Cabo Sir Richard 6 6 Chrio, and the famous Battaile of Lepanto against Bingham, 1598, aged the Turks; in the civil wars of France; in the 70. Netherlands, and at Smerwich,2 where the Romanes and Irish 'were vanquished.' died March Not far off is the monument of William Thynne, coeval with the rise of the great house of which his brother was the founder; and by his long life covering the whole William Tudor dynasty, from the reign of Henry VII., when Thynne, he travelled over the yet united Europe, through the 15, 1581. wars of Henry VIII., when he fought against the Scots at Musselburgh, to the middle of Elizabeth's reign, when he 'gently fell asleep in the Lord.' Lady Catherine St. John. Fanes, 1618; The descent from the Court of Elizabeth to that of James I. is well indicated by the change of interest in the monuments. They are not deficient in a certain grandeur, COURT OF but it is derived rather from the fame of the families JAMES I. than of the individuals. Such are the monuments of Lady Catherine St. John (once in St. Michael's, now in St. Nicholas's Chapel), of the Fanes, of the Talbots, and of the Hattons, in the Chapels of St. Nicholas, St. Talbots, Edmund, and St. Erasmus; of Dudley Carleton,3 the Hattons, ambassador in Spain, in St. Paul's Chapel. He it leton, 1631. was who, on his return from Spain, found the King at Theobald's, hunting in a very careless and unguarded manner, ' and upon that, in order to the putting him on a more careful looking to himself, he told the King he must either give over that way of hunting, or stop another hunting that he was engaged in, which was priest-hunting; for he had intelligence Governor of the Netherlands under Lord Essex; and Henry Noel (1596), gentleman pensioner to the Queen, and buried here by her particular directions, for his gentile address and skill in music.' (Dart, ii. 7.) Is it an accidental coincidence, or an indication of Macaulay's exact knowledge, that the Lay of the contemporary 6 1617: 1619; Car 'Battle of Ivry' commences with the like strain ? Compare Froude, xi. 237. Vere's motto is also Deo exercitum. 2 For Bingham's exploits at Smerwich in Dingle Bay, see Froude, xi. 233-235. 3 Stone received for this monument £200. (Walpole's Anecdotes, ii. 62.) in Spain that . . . Queen Elizabeth was a woman of power, ' and was always so well attended that all their plots against her 'failed; but a Prince who was always in woods and forests could 'be easily overtaken. The advice, however, wrought otherwise 'than he had intended, for the King continued to hunt, and gave up hunting the priests.'' The two greatest men who passed away in James I.'s reign rest far off-Bacon in his own Verulam, Shakspeare in his own Stratford. One inferior to these, yet the last relic of the age of Elizabethan adventure, has left his traces close by. The Gatehouse of Westminster was the prison, St. Margaret's Church the last resting-place, of Sir Walter Ralegh. A companion of his daring expedition to Fayal rests, without a memorial, in St. Edmund's ChapelLord Hervey, who had greatly distinguished himself 1642. at the time of the Spanish Armada, and afterwards in Ireland.3 Lord Hervey, Duke of died Feb. 16, 1623-4: buried Feb. One stately monument of this epoch is remarkable from its position. In the southern side of the central aisle of Henry Lewis Stuart, VII.'s Chapel was buried Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Richmond, Richmond and Lennox, cousin to James I. (who had been his one confidential companion in the expedition 17. Duchess to Gowrie House), Lord Chamberlain, and Lord High mond, 1639. Admiral of Scotland.4 The funeral ceremony took place two months after his burial, perhaps from his having died of the 'spotted ague.' 5 His widow, who died May 27, raised the monument, and, with the exception of his brother Esme, all the Lennox family, were laid beside of Rich Charles Lennox, son buried June 7, 1723. 1 Burnet's Own Time, i. 12. 2 See Chapter V. 3 Register. The facts from Camden and Dugdale are communicated by the kindness of Lord Arthur Hervey. Epitaph, 2 Sam. iii. 38: CHRONOG AN IGNORATIS: QVIA PRINCEPS ET VIR MAGNVS OBIIT HODIE. The elongated letters are all the Roman numerals. If they are extracted, and placed according to their value, they give (as pointed out to me by Mr. Poole, the master-mason of the Abbey) the date of the year : M. DC. VVV. IIIIIIII., i.e. 1000+ 600+ 15 +8=1623. For other like chronograms see Pettigrew's Epitaphs, 163, 164. 5 State Paper Office, 1624. She requested Charles I.'s intervention for the removal of the stone partition of the Chapel wherein is a door and corridors, and for the erec'tion of an iron grate in lieu thereof.' The King, though ready to do any thing that may add to the honour of the duke, was careful not to command anything that may give an injury and 'blemish to the strength and security ' of that Chapel,' and therefore referred the matter to the Dean and Chapter, and they apparently objected, as the partition still remains. (State Paper Office, 1628.) The tomb has been splendidly restored at the cost of the present representative of the family, the Earl of Darnley. He, in 1624, with much pomp, equal to that of the funeral of Anne of Denmark, was buried in the vault of |