Sir William Webb Follett, Knt., who was at the time of his decease representative in Parliament for the City of Exeter, and Attorney-General to Queen Victoria. Of unblemished conduct in every relation of life, of manners gentle and prepossessing, combining with great legal knowledge extraordinary powers of persuasive eloquence, he attained, with the esteem, admiration, and good-will of all who witnessed his brilliant career, the highest eminence as an advocate and a Parliamentary speaker. The general hope and expectation that he was destined for the highest honours of the law were blighted by his untimely death. Died June 28, 1845, aged forty-eight.
A bust to the memory of George Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, K.T., K.G. Born January 28th, 1784; died December 14th, 1860. Ambassador, Secretary of State, Prime Minister.—M. Noble, S.C.
Next to this on your left is a monument sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Warren, daughter of Henry Southwell, Esq., of Wisbeach, in the county of Cambridge, and widow of the Right Rev. John Warren, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Bangor:—“She was distinguished for the purity of her taste, and the soundness of her judgment; her prudence and discrimination were in no instances more conspicuous, than in selecting the objects of her extensive charity. The widow and the fatherless were protected and relieved, and the virtuous who had fallen from prosperity, had peculiar claims to her benevolence. Though mild and gentle in her manners, yet she was remarkable for the firmness and vigour of her mind. Stedfast in the faith of Christ, she lived to illustrate his precepts, and died reposing on his merits and intercession. She departed this life, March 29, 1816, aged eighty-three. Her surviving sister, Mary, widow of the Right Honourable Sir James Eyre, Knt., Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, in testimony of her sincere affection, has erected this monument to her memory.”—It represents a houseless wanderer with an infant in her arms, on a square pedestal; the figure with its draperies is very generally admired.—Sir Richard Westmacott, sculptor.
Sir Henry Blackwood, with this inscription:—“Sacred to the memory of Vice-Admiral the Honourable Sir Henry Blackwood, Bart., K.C.B., G.C.H., who died December, 13, 1832, aged 63 years, 51 of which he had spent in the active service of his profession, distinguished by his energy, promptitude, and bravery, qualities which derived additional lustre from the virtues which adorned his personal character; with valour combining a strong sense of religion, and the elevation of an upright noble mind, with all the endearing feelings of a manly, generous, and benevolent heart. This tribute of sorrow and affection to the memory of one so justly honoured and beloved, is offered by his deeply afflicted widow and his surviving children.”—Behnes, sculptor.
In memory of the Right Honourable Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Baronet, of Harpton Court, in the County of Radnor; successively Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for the Home and War Departments. The bust is erected by many friends, to mark their affectionate esteem and admiration, and to record his honoured name among the illustrious dead who lie buried within these walls. Born April 21, 1806; died April 13, 1863.—Weekes, R.A., sculptor.
A monument erected by the East India Company, as a memorial of the military talents of Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, K.B., Commander-in-chief of the British forces in India, who, by the success of his arms, in the year 1760 and 1761, expelled the French from the coast of Coromandel. In 1781 and 1782 he again took the field in the Carnatic, in opposition to the united strength of the French and Hyder Ally, and in several engagements defeated the numerous forces of the latter; but death interrupted his career of glory, on the 27th April, 1783, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. It consists of two figures as large as life; one a Mahratta captive, weeping beside a trophy of Persian armour, represents a province subdued; he is holding a cornucopia inverted, the contents of which are falling into a Britannia’s shield. The other, a Victory, having erected a trophy, is decorating it with the portrait of Sir Eyre Coote, by hanging it on a palm-tree, which rises from behind the armour. The elephant on the sarcophagus marks the scene of action. The Mahratta figure is particularly admired.—Banks, sculptor.
A bust with the following inscription:—“Amidst the memorials of maturer greatness, this tribute of private affection and public honour records the talents, virtues, and early death of the Right Honourable Charles Buller, who, as an independent Member of Parliament, and in the discharge of important offices of state, united the deepest human sympathies with wide and philosophic views of government and mankind; and pursued the noblest political and social objects, above party spirit, and without an enemy. His character was distinguished by sincerity and resolution, his mind by vivacity and clearness of comprehension; while the vigour of expression and singular wit that made him eminent in debate, and delightful in society, were tempered by a most gentle and generous disposition; earnest in friendship and benevolent to all. The British Colonies will not forget the statesman who so well appreciated their desires and their destinies; and his country, recalling what he was, deplores the vanished hope of all he might have become. He was born August, 1806; he died Nov. 29, 1848.”
A bust sacred to the memory of the Right Honourable Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal; Member of his Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council, LL.D., F.R.S., descended from the elder branch of the ancient and noble family of Huntingdon. Selected for his eminent talents and integrity, he was appointed by Parliament, in 1773, the first Governor-General of India, to which high office he was thrice re-appointed by the same authority. Presiding over the India Governments during thirteen years of a most eventful period, he restored the affairs of the East India Company from the deepest distress to the highest prosperity, and rescued their possessions from a combination of the most powerful enemies ever leagued against them. In the wisdom of his counsels, and the energy of his measures, he found unexhausted resources, and successfully sustained a long, varied, and multiplied war with France, Mysore, and the Mahratta states, whose power he humbled, and concluded an honourable peace, for which, and for his distinguished services, he received the thanks of the East India Company, sanctioned by the Board of Control. The kingdom of Bengal, the seat of his Government, he ruled with a mild and equitable sway, preserved it from invasion, and, while he secured to its inhabitants the enjoyment of their customs, laws, and religion, and the blessings of peace, was rewarded by their affection and gratitude; nor was he more distinguished by the highest qualities of a statesman and a patriot, than by the exercise of every Christian virtue. He lived for many years in dignified retirement, beloved and revered by all who knew him, at his seat of Daylesford, in the county of Worcester, where he died in peace, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, August 22, 1818. This memorial was erected by his beloved wife and disconsolate widow, M. A. Hastings. Over the inscription is a bust, greatly like him, executed by Mr. Bacon.
A statue to the memory of Francis Horner, who, by the union of great and various acquirements, with inflexible integrity, and unwearied devotion to the interests of the country, raised himself to an eminent station in society, and was justly considered to be one of the most distinguished members of the House of Commons. He was born at Edinburgh in 1778, was called to the bar both of England and Scotland; and closed his short but useful life at Pisa, in 1817. His death was deeply felt, and publicly deplored in Parliament. His affectionate friends and sincere admirers, anxious that some memorial should exist of merit universally acknowledged, of expectations which a premature death could alone have frustrated, erected this monument, A.D. 1823.—Chantrey, sculptor.
Brigadier-General Hope, Lieutenant-Governor of the province of Quebec, where he died in 1789, aged forty-three years. The design of it is simply an Indian, whose affection has drawn her to the monument; she kneels on the pedestal, and bending over the sarcophagus, expresses that sorrow which the loss of such a benefactor has occasioned. A rudder is introduced, emblematical of his situation as Governor: the serpent and mirror, engraved thereon, point out the prudence of his administration; and a cornucopia conveys the idea of the felicity of it.—Bacon, sculptor.