Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Observations Made In A Visit To The Tombs In Westminster Abbey,
measured six feet two , which is three inches and a half less than the statue that formerly lay over his tomb . Such a sig ht is alone worth a journey to London . An eye in 1307 , and an eye in 1774 , saw the same human body , in the same dress , without the least alteration ; an instance without parallel . The Society 1 am informedappliedbut in vainfor another view .
, , , , I know no greater excitement to a second , than a first . The small time spent in one must be too short to gratify ; nor can I see any cause of refusal : the living are deli ghted and instructed , the dead cannot be injured ; they are only dust , preserved a little longer from their native dust . Those who wish most to see them are the least likely to injure them .
As Edward , a few days before his death , ordered his body to be carried through Scotland , at the head of the army , his being interred in this place and dress must have been the act of his son , Edward the Second . Being debarred both a sight and touch of this unparalleled curiosity 1 could not refrain moving my hand along the side of the tomb
, , which I knew must be within a few inches of the royal body . EDMUND , DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . About four feet from Edward ' s tomb , on the right , and two feet above the floor , lies in state the effigy of the Duke of Buckingham , in wax ; the last of the house of Sheffield , who died at Rome , in 1735 ,
at the age of nineteen . He lies in a glass case , dressed in his ducal robes and coronet , both fresh . His hair is long and bushy , the fashion of his day ; the stockings white silk , and the shoes yellow leather , veiy long . I should think the representation exact , and , by the'thinness ofthe visage , taken rather from death than life . One cannot view this
emblem of fallen greatness , without commiseration . Trie only fruit of an ancient stem , blasted in an early stage . He was £ aid to possess many excellent qualities , but death often doubles our Virtues .
CORONATION CHAIRS . Three or four feet on the duke ' s ri ght stands a plain wooden twoarmed chair . None of the furniture in this room is less than four or five hundred years old , except the duke . and this chair . The latter was made for the coronation of Mary the Second , wife of King Williamin 1688 .
, Near this chair stands the king ' s , in which all the English sovereigns have been crowned since Edward the Confessor . There appears no difference between thembut age . The antiquary , who values modern cash less than ancient timber , would give five hundred guineas for this venerable piece of lumber , which has supported the British Crownin its hihest lustreduring
, g , seven hundred years ; but under Christie ' s hammer , at a common auction , it would not bring more than eighteen pence . No seat in the whole nation , though uneasy to many of its . pos-. M z
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Observations Made In A Visit To The Tombs In Westminster Abbey,
measured six feet two , which is three inches and a half less than the statue that formerly lay over his tomb . Such a sig ht is alone worth a journey to London . An eye in 1307 , and an eye in 1774 , saw the same human body , in the same dress , without the least alteration ; an instance without parallel . The Society 1 am informedappliedbut in vainfor another view .
, , , , I know no greater excitement to a second , than a first . The small time spent in one must be too short to gratify ; nor can I see any cause of refusal : the living are deli ghted and instructed , the dead cannot be injured ; they are only dust , preserved a little longer from their native dust . Those who wish most to see them are the least likely to injure them .
As Edward , a few days before his death , ordered his body to be carried through Scotland , at the head of the army , his being interred in this place and dress must have been the act of his son , Edward the Second . Being debarred both a sight and touch of this unparalleled curiosity 1 could not refrain moving my hand along the side of the tomb
, , which I knew must be within a few inches of the royal body . EDMUND , DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM . About four feet from Edward ' s tomb , on the right , and two feet above the floor , lies in state the effigy of the Duke of Buckingham , in wax ; the last of the house of Sheffield , who died at Rome , in 1735 ,
at the age of nineteen . He lies in a glass case , dressed in his ducal robes and coronet , both fresh . His hair is long and bushy , the fashion of his day ; the stockings white silk , and the shoes yellow leather , veiy long . I should think the representation exact , and , by the'thinness ofthe visage , taken rather from death than life . One cannot view this
emblem of fallen greatness , without commiseration . Trie only fruit of an ancient stem , blasted in an early stage . He was £ aid to possess many excellent qualities , but death often doubles our Virtues .
CORONATION CHAIRS . Three or four feet on the duke ' s ri ght stands a plain wooden twoarmed chair . None of the furniture in this room is less than four or five hundred years old , except the duke . and this chair . The latter was made for the coronation of Mary the Second , wife of King Williamin 1688 .
, Near this chair stands the king ' s , in which all the English sovereigns have been crowned since Edward the Confessor . There appears no difference between thembut age . The antiquary , who values modern cash less than ancient timber , would give five hundred guineas for this venerable piece of lumber , which has supported the British Crownin its hihest lustreduring
, g , seven hundred years ; but under Christie ' s hammer , at a common auction , it would not bring more than eighteen pence . No seat in the whole nation , though uneasy to many of its . pos-. M z