“Thus while on earth, who joy in mutual love,
Beyond the grave shall find their joys improve.”
—Wilton, sculptor.
The next is to the memory of Richard Kempenfelt, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the Blue, who was lost in his Majesty’s ship Royal George, which overset and sunk at Spithead, on the 29th August, 1782, by which fatal event about nine hundred persons were launched into eternity, and his king and country deprived of the services of a great and meritorious officer, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. This monument was erected pursuant to the will of his brother, Gustavus Adolphus Kempenfelt, Esq., who died at his seat, Lady-place, Hurley, Berkshire, on the 14th of March, 1808, aged eighty-seven, of whose philanthropy and humanity, his liberal subscriptions and bequests to most of the charitable institutions in this country, will be lasting records.—Bacon, jun., sculptor.
The next consists of a delicate female figure, mourning over two urns, holding a scroll, on which is expressed—“I shall go to them, but they shall not return to me.—2 Sam. xii. 23.” Benjamin John Forbes, late Lieutenant in his Majesty’s seventy-fourth regiment of foot; and Richard Gordon Forbes, late Lieutenant in the first regiment of Foot Guards, the eldest sons of Lieutenant-General Gordon Forbes, Colonel of the twenty-ninth regiment of foot, and Margaret, his wife, eldest daughter of the late Benjamin Sullivan, Esq., of Dromenagh, in the county of Cork; both of whom fell in the service of their king and country, deeply regretted by their regiments and the detachments of the army in which they served. The former at the assault of Kistnagherry, in the East Indies, 12th November, 1791, aged nineteen years; the latter near Alkmaar, in North Holland, the 19th of September, 1799, aged twenty years. This monument, no less a tribute of justice to exemplary merit, than a record of the tenderest parental sense of filial piety, is erected and dedicated A.D. 1803.—Bacon, jun., sculptor.
A third, to the memory of General Stuart, having a fine medallion of him; the Latin inscription is to the following purport:—“In memory of a man truly noble, the Honourable Sir Charles Stuart, Knight of the Bath, fourth son of John, Earl of Bute, who began his military career in America; and was afterwards sent, during the raging of the war with France, Commander-in-Chief against Corsica and Minorca, both which he happily subdued. He was again called forth, agreeably to the wishes of all good men, and already destined, by the favour of his Sovereign, to greater appointments, but died at Richmond, in the year of our Lord 1801, aged forty-seven, leaving the public, as well as his friends, to deplore, and that deeply, the loss of so great a man, on whose extraordinary talents, military conduct, and approved valour, whether dangers were to be averted, or her wrongs avenged, his country could at all times rely with the greatest security and confidence.”—Nollekens, sculptor.
The last in this Chapel is one to the memory of Lieutenant-General William Anne Villettes, second son of Arthur Villettes, Esq., his late Majesty’s Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Turin, and Helvetic Cantons, who died near Port Antonio, on the 13th July, 1808, aged fifty-four years.
“The sculptur’d marble shall dissolve in dust,
And fame, and wealth, and honour pass away
Not such the triumphs of the good and just,
Not such the glories of eternal day.”
W. Cartwright, T. Bowdler, J. Cazenove, have erected this tablet as a tribute of friendship.—Sir Richard Westmacott, sculptor.
At the north end of this Chapel is an elegant painted window, representing St. Cecilia playing upon an organ, accompanied by three angels, in memory of Mr. Vincent Novello, by Lavers and Barraud. Born 1781; died 1861.
Opposite to you, on leaving this Chapel, is the monument to the memory of Field-Marshal Lord Ligonier, which has a striking likeness of his Lordship, in profile, and the medallions of Queen Anne, George I., II., and III., under whom his Lordship served. The inscription is only a recital of his titles and places, his age ninety-two, and his death the 28th of April, 1770. On the scroll held by History, is the following list of battles:—Schellenberg, Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudinarde, Taniere, Malplaquet, Dettingen, Fountenoy, Rocoux, and Laffeldt.—Moore, sculptor.