Lord Macaulay.—The body of this eminent historian is deposited close to the statue of Addison. Born October 25th, 1800; died December 28th, 1859.
Near the statute of Addison are two fine busts, one on each side, of Lord Macaulay, by Burnard; and Thackeray, by Marrochetti.
George Frederick Handel.—This is the last monument which that eminent statuary, Roubiliac, lived to finish. It is affirmed that he first became conspicious, and afterwards finished the exercise of his art, with a figure of this extraordinary man. The first was erected in the gardens at Vauxhall, therefore well known to the public. The last figure is very elegant, and the face is a strong likeness of its original. The left arm is resting on a group of musical instruments, and the attitude is very expressive of great attention to the harmony of an angel playing on a harp in the clouds, over his head. Before it lies the celebrated Messiah, with that part open, where is the much-admired air,—“I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Beneath, only this inscription:—“George Frederick Handel, Esq., born Feb. 23, 1684. Died April 14, 1759.”
Sacred to the memory of Major-General Sir Archibald Campbell, Knight of the Bath, M.P., Colonel of the seventy-fourth Regiment of Foot, Hereditary Usher of the White Rod for Scotland, late Governor of Jamaica, Governor of Fort St. George, and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces on the coast of Coromandel, in the East Indies. He died equally regretted and admired for his eminent civil and military services to his country; possessed of distinguished endowments of mind, dignified manners, inflexible integrity, unfeigned benevolence, with every social and amiable virtue. He departed this life March 31, A.D. 1791, aged fifty-two. “Alas, piety! alas, fidelity! like that of old, and warlike courage! when shall you have his equal?”—Wilton, sculptor.
Here also lies the body of his nephew, Lieutenant-General Sir James Campbell, Bart., G.C.H., and C.SS., F.M., who served during the whole of the last war in many distinguished situations; was Commander of the Forces in the Ionian Islands at the general peace of 1814, and died at London upon the 6th of June, 1819, aged fifty-four.
POET’S CORNER, p. 103.
On a tablet is the following inscription:—“To the memory of Mary Hope, who died at Brockhall, in the county of Northampton, on the 25th of June, 1767, aged twenty-five, and whose remains lie in the neighbouring church at Norton, this stone, an unavailing tribute of affliction, is by her husband erected and inscribed. She was the only daughter of Eliab Breton, of Forty Hill, Middlesex, Esq., and was married to John Hope, of London, Merchant, to whom she left three infant sons, Charles, John, and William.
“Tho’ low in earth, her beauteous form decay’d,
My faithful wife, my lov’d Maria’s laid.
In sad remembrance, the afflicted raise
No pompous tomb inscrib’d with venal praise.
To statesmen, warriors, and to kings, belong
The trophied sculpture, and the poet’s song;
And these the proud expiring often claim,
Their wealth bequeathing to record their name.
But humble virtue, stealing to the dust,
Heeds not our lays, or monumental bust.
To name her virtues ill befits my grief—
What was my bliss can now give no relief;
A husband mourns—the rest let friendship tell;
Fame, spread her worth! a husband knew it well!”
Sir Thomas and Lady Robinson.—This monument to the memory of the Dowager Baroness Lechmere, eldest daughter of Charles Howard, third Earl of Carlisle, and widow of Nicholas Lord Lechmere, afterwards married Sir Thomas Robinson, of Rookby Park, in the county of York, Baronet, on October 28, 1728, and died April 10, 1739, aged forty-four. Sir Thomas, after enjoying many honourable and lucrative employments in the State, spent the latter part of his life in retirement, dying March 3, 1777, aged seventy-six.—Walsh, sculptor.