Prais’d, wept, and honour’d by the Muse he lov’d.
S. Wale delin C. Grignion sc.
Capt. Cornwall’s Monument
42. On the south side of the great west entrance is a noble monument erected to the memory of the brave Captain Cornwall, who after distinguishing himself by his heroism, was unhappily slain in the battle between the English fleet, commanded by the Admirals Matthews and Lestock, and the French. This monument was erected to his honour by order of Parliament, and is a noble testimony of the public gratitude for his distinguished merit. On the back is a lofty pyramid of Egyptian marble beautifully variegated, and finely polished, standing on a base of the same marble. Upon this base is a rock of white marble, along the different parts of which run sea weeds. Near the top stands a fine figure of Fame, placing a medalion of the Captain on the summit of the rock, underneath which is a naval crown, a globe, the trumpet of Fame, and other ornaments, and behind rises to the top of the pediment a palm, entwined with a laurel. On the other side of the medalion stands a beautiful figure of Britannia, with the British Lion couchant at her feet. Beneath, in an opening of the rock, is a Latin inscription on a fine piece of polished porphyry, mentioning his descent, and the manner of his death, which happened while fighting for his country, on the 3d of February 1743, in the 45th year of his age, and that the Senate of Britain consecrated this monument to his memory. In another opening of the rock, a little lower, is represented in bass relief a view of the engagement in which this great man perished, and at the bottom of the rock on the sides lie cannons, flags, anchors, &c. all of white marble.
43. The next is an elegant monument for Sir Thomas Hardy, Knt. On the back is a lofty pyramid of a bluish coloured marble, at the foot of which the statue of the deceased is placed, reclining upon a tomb of elegant workmanship, with a naked boy on his left side weeping over an urn: the enrichments round the pedestal on which he stands are just and proper; and the inscription contains the following short history of his life:
Sir Thomas Hardy, to whose memory this monument is erected, was bred in the royal navy from his youth, and was made a Captain in 1693.
In the expedition to Cadiz, under Sir George Rooke, he commanded the Pembroke; and when the fleet left the coast of Spain, to return to England, he was ordered to Lagos Bay, where he got intelligence of the Spanish galleons being arrived in the harbour of Vigo, under convoy of seventeen French men of war: by his great diligence and judgment he joined the English fleet, and gave the Admiral that intelligence which engaged him to make the best of his way to Vigo, where all the aforementioned galleons and men of war were either taken or destroyed.
After the success of that action, the Admiral sent him with an account of it to the Queen, who ordered him a considerable present, and knighted him.
Some years afterwards he was made a Rear-Admiral, and received several other marks of favour and esteem from her Majesty, and from her Royal Consort Prince George of Denmark, Lord High Admiral of England.
44. The monument of John Conduit, Esq; is allowed, in point of design, to be not inferior to that last mentioned, and there is something in the manner which shews them both to be the workmanship of the same hand. In the middle of the pyramid is a large medalion of brass, round which is a Latin inscription, thus english’d, John Conduit, Master of the Mint; this medalion is suspended by a cherub above, and rests on another below. This gentleman succeeded his relation the great Sir Isaac Newton in that office, and desired to be interred near him, as appears from a long Latin inscription on the base. He died May 23d, 1727, aged forty-nine. Catharine his wife died Jan. 20, 1739, and lies interred under the same tomb.