Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield / A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See

by A. B. Clifton

"Honour'd beloved, and mourn'd here Seward lies;

Her worth, her warmth of heart, our sorrows say,—

Go seek her genius in her living lay."

There is a representation of the poetess mourning her dead relatives, while her harp is hanging neglected on a tree. On the other side is a memorial tablet to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who was a native of Lichfield. In these days of anti-vaccination agitations it is interesting to read the inscription which runs:—

"The Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who happily introduced from Turkey into this country the Salutary Art of inoculating the Smallpox. Convinced of its efficacy, she first tried it with success on her own children, and then recommended the practice of it to her fellow-citizens. Thus, by her example and advice, we have softened the Virulence and escaped the danger of this Malignant Disease. To perpetuate the memory of such benevolence, and to express the gratitude for the benefit she hereby has received from this Alleviating Art, this Monument is erected by Henrietta Inge, Relict of Theodore William Inge, Esq., and Daughter of Sir John Wrotesley, Baronet. In the year of Our Lord, 1789."

Close at hand is a tablet in memory of Mr Gilbert Walmesley, who was registrar of the diocese, and an early and close friend of Dr Johnson. Of him the latter wrote, in his life of Edmund Smith (one of the well-known "Lives of the Poets"), that passage which contains the celebrated sentence about David Garrick so often quoted. Speaking of Gilbert Walmesley, he says that he is "not able to name a man of equal knowledge. His acquaintance with books was great; such was his amplitude of learning, and such his copiousness of communication, that it may be doubted whether a day now passes in which I have not some advantage from his friendship. At this man's table I enjoyed many cheerful and instructive hours with companions such as are not often found; with one who has lengthened, and one who has gladdened life; with Dr James, whose skill in physic will be long remembered, and with David Garrick, whose death has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure."

There are other monuments in this aisle, but they are scarcely of such general interest. Here are tablets in memory of Jane and Catherine Jervis and of Elizabeth and Arabella Buchanan. There is a stained glass window by Messrs Burlison & Grylls containing three large figures of Joshua, St. Michael, and the Centurion, with, underneath, pictures of the Angel appearing to Joshua, the Centurion at the Cross, and the Centurion coming to Our Lord; above, in the tracery of the window, are angels. This window was the gift of the officers of the 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment; on one side are their Peninsular, and on the other their Crimean colours, which the dean and chapter received from the regiment with much ceremony in 1886 and 1887 respectively. Beneath the window is a brass in memory of those members of the regiment who died in the Peninsula, first Burmah, Crimean, and Egyptian (1882) wars, and the Indian Mutiny. There are also brasses to Lieutenant-Colonels Sinclair and Eyre and the officers and men of this regiment who fell in the first Soudan war, and also brasses to Colonel Bromley Davenport and Sir Arthur Scott, Bart. Here, too, is a window in memory of Canon Madan, his wife and children: the subject being Faith, Hope, and Charity. In the window next the transept is some quite new glass in memory of Canon Curteis, the large figures representing Samuel, St. Paul, and Origen, while below are Samuel teaching the Sons of the Prophets, St. Paul saying farewell to the Elders at Miletus, and St. Catherine and the Philosophers of Alexandria.

The famous Dr Stukeley, writing about 1715, says: "As you walk down the north aisle, by a little doorway, formerly a chapel, where lay several figures now demolished, yet one remains, who was dean Yotton, his coat of arms at his head and Yot with a tun by it which shows his name." The only remaining sign of this chapel is the entrance, which can be plainly seen from the outside of the cathedral.

In the South Aisle of the Nave, at the west end, there is a monument to Dean Addison, the father of the great essayist and poet; he died in 1703. His memorial slab is now under the Jesus Tower, but formerly it was on the north of the west door. The glass in the window of the tower is in memory of Dean Howard, during whose time as dean so much of the work of restoration was done, and who so munificently aided the work. This glass, which is by Messrs Burlison & Grylls, represents St. Michael and the Dragon, and St. Chad. The other glass on this side is the window of the fifth bay, by Messrs Clayton & Bell, the subjects being Our Lord and Lazarus, Our Lord and Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene washing Our Lord's feet; in the next bay the glass, by Messrs Ward & Hughes, shows Faith, Hope, and Charity; in the seventh bay the glass is by Messrs Clayton & Bell, and has David and Goliath for its subject, and is in memory of the officers of the 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment who fell in the Indian Mutiny. There is in the eighth bay a window by Hardman in memory of Helen, wife of Josiah Spode. Between the aisle and the nave there is a brass in the floor in memory of the late Earl of Lichfield, placed there in 1854. There are several other modern brasses and tablets.

In this aisle are two of the three semi-effigies to be seen in the cathedral. These show only the heads and the feet. Britton says: "They are said to represent two old canons of the church; and are evidently of ancient date, as they appear to have been placed in the present situation at the time of building or finishing the nave." One of these is in a better state of preservation than the other, and shows in the drapery the remains of colour.