But the most magnificent monument in this chapel is against the east wall, where stood the altar of St. John Baptist; this was erected to the memory of Henry Carey, first cousin to Queen Elizabeth, who, on being denied the honours of peerage, laid the disappointment so much to heart, that he languished for a long time on a sick bed, at which the Queen being moved, too late, created him a Baron, and ordered the patent and robes to be laid before him, but without effect. He died on the 23d of July 1596, aged seventy-two.
Here also is a monument to Thomas Carey, second son to the Earl of Monmouth, who is said to have died of grief in 1648, at the age of thirty-three, on account of the untimely fate of his royal master King Charles I.
Here are likewise a few antique monuments, particularly one in which the figure of a Bishop properly habited, lies under a Gothic canopy. This is supposed to be erected for Thomas Rathal, Bishop of Durham, who died in 1524.
And an ancient stone monument for William of Colchester, whose effigies lie with the head supported by an angel, and the feet by a lamb.
St. Paul’s Chapel, has on the left hand, a lofty monument erected to the memory of Sir John Puckering, Knt. and Lord Chancellor in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which office he died on the 20th of April 1596. His epitaph in Latin over his effigies, is thus translated:
The publick care and laws engag’d my breast,
To live was toilsome, but to die is rest;
Wealth, maces, guards, crowns, titles, things that fade,
The prey of Time and sable Death are made.
Virtue inspires Men.