In 1349 twenty-six of the monks of this Abbey fell victims to a dreadful plague which at that period had extended its ravages over great part of the globe, and are reported by Fuller to have been buried all in one grave in the South Cloisters, under the remarkable large stone called Long Meg.
Against the wall is a monument to Peter Francis Courayer, a Roman Catholic clergyman, born at Vernon, in Normandy, 1681. He was Canon and Librarian of the Abbey of Geneviève, at Paris. He translated and published several valuable works. In 1727 he took refuge in England, and was well received, and presented by the University of Oxford with the degree of D.D. On his dedicating a book to Queen Caroline, his pension was augmented to £200 per annum from £100 which he had obtained before from the court. He died, in 1776, after two days’ illness, at the age of ninety-five.
At the end of this walk is the monument of Daniel Pulteney, who served the court several years; abroad in the reign of Queen Anne, and at home in the reign of George I. The following is the inscription:—“Reader, if thou art a Briton, behold this tomb with reverence and regret! Here lie the remains of Daniel Pulteney, the kindest relation, the truest friend, the warmest patriot, the worthiest man! He exercised virtues in his age, sufficient to have distinguished him even in the best. Sagacious by nature, industrious by habit, inquisitive with art, he gained a complete knowledge of the state of Britain, foreign and domestic; in most, the backward fruit of tedious experience; in him, the early acquisition of undissipated youth. He served the court several years; abroad, in the auspicious reign of Queen Anne; at home, in the reign of that excellent Prince, George I. He served his country always; at court independent, in the senate unbiassed. At every age, and at every station, this was the bent of his generous soul, this the business of his laborious life; public men and public things he judged by one common standard—the true interest of Britain; he made no other distinction of party; he abhorred all other. Gentle, humane, disinterested, benevolent, he created no enemies on his own account; firm, determined, inflexible, he feared none he could create in the cause of Britain. Reader, in this misfortune of thy country, lament thy own; for know, the loss of so much private virtue is a public calamity.”
EAST WALK.
Near the iron gate is a tablet sacred to the memory of the Rev. Thomas Vialls, of Twickenham, Middlesex, A.M., many years vicar of Boldre, in the New Forest, who departed this life May 7, 1831, aged sixty-two.
To the left is a very beautiful arch, beneath which is a doorway leading to the Chapter House and Library; in front of which was buried Abbot Byrcheston, who died of the plague, May 15, 1349; but no stone left to mark the place of his interment.
Against the wall, in the centre of the East Walk, is a monument to the memory of George Walsh, Esq., with the following inscription:—“Near this place are deposited the remains of George Walsh, Esq., late Lieutenant-General of his Majesty’s Forces, and Colonel of the forty-ninth Regiment of Foot, who died October 23, 1761, aged seventy-three.
“The toils of life and pangs of death are o’er,
And care, and pain, and sickness, are no more.”
To the memory of James William Dodd, who for thirty-four years was one of the Ushers of Westminster School, the duties of which he discharged with consummate ability. The Westminsters, his pupils, resident at the boarding-house under his immediate care, have, bewailing his loss, caused this tablet to be erected. He died on the 29th day of August, 1818, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.
Beneath is a monument to preserve and unite the memory of two affectionate brothers, valiant soldiers and sincere Christians: Scipio Duroure, Esq., Adjutant-General of the British Forces, Colonel of the twelfth Regiment of Foot, and Captain or Keeper of his Majesty’s Castle of St. Mawes, in Cornwall, who, after forty-one years’ faithful services, was mortally wounded at the battle of Fontenoy, and died May 10, 1745, aged fifty-six years, and lies interred on the ramparts of Aeth, in the low Countries; and Alexander Duroure, Esq., Lieutenant-General of the British Forces, Colonel of the Fourth, or King’s own Regiment of Foot, and Captain or Keeper of his Majesty’s Castle of St. Mawes, in Cornwall, who, after fifty-seven years of faithful services, died at Toulouse, in France, on the 2nd January, 1795, aged seventy-four years, and lies interred in this Cloister.