“If you’d seen these roads before they were made
You would hold up your hands and bless Marshal Wade.”
Two other soldiers who fought at Culloden, General Guest and Colonel Webb, are buried in the East Cloister. General Guest, who has a monument in the North Transept, defended Edinburgh against the rebels in 1745.
There is a tablet to Colonel Webb in the East Cloister.
Just at this time France declared war upon England, and took up the cause of Prince Charles Edward. In 1745 a battle was fought at Fontenoy, in Flanders. The English and their allies were under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, but their army was much smaller than the French army, and although they made a gallant attempt, they had to retreat. In the Westminster Cloisters there is a monument to two brave soldier-brothers of the name of Duroure, one of whom was killed at Fontenoy.
The naval victories over the French won by Admiral Anson and Admiral Hawke in 1747 are recorded on the Abbey walls by the monuments of Captain Philip Saumarez and Sir Charles Saunders, who both fought in the action off Finisterre. We shall meet with Sir Charles Saunders’s name again later on.
The monument to Admiral Vernon, at the end of the North Transept, tells us of the war with Spain in 1737–40, and of the English victories at Porto Bello and Cartagena. In the North Transept aisle is a monument to Lord Aubrey Beauclerk, who was killed in 1740, on Admiral Vernon’s expedition to Cartagena. And again, we are reminded of the fights with the Spanish fleet in the West Indies when we look at the monuments to Admiral Wager and Sir Peter Warren, which are also both in the North Transept. Sir Peter Warren’s monument is a very fanciful one. It was made by the French sculptor, Roubiliac, the sculptor of the well-known Nightingale Monument in the Chapel of St. Michael. Roubiliac has actually represented the marks of smallpox on the face of Sir Peter Warren’s bust!
Sir Peter Warren’s nephew, Admiral Tyrrell, has a monument in the Nave. Tyrrell once defeated three French men-of-war single-handed, while he was commanding the Buckingham. He died in 1766, and is buried at sea.
Close to the entrance of the former Baptistery is the huge monument to Captain James Cornewall, who was killed in a great fight with the Spanish-French fleet off Toulon early in 1744. This monument was the first which was erected by Parliament in honour of a distinguished sailor.
In 1756 began the Seven Years’ War, between Prussia on one side, and Austria, France, Russia, Poland, Saxony, and Sweden on the other. These countries wanted to break up the kingdom of Prussia, which was becoming very powerful under Frederick the Great. Now, England was already at war with France, and she took the side of Prussia. The Duke of Cumberland, of whom we have already heard a good deal, was in command of the army in Hanover. At first, things seemed to be going very badly for England, but the tide turned when William Pitt, “the Great Commoner,” as he was called, became War Minister. William Pitt was indeed the foremost man in England’s history at this time, for not only did he strengthen our position in Europe, but it was he who slowly built up our world-wide Empire. He was created Earl of Chatham in 1766, and died in 1778. All this is most interesting and important to remember when we are in the Abbey, because this great English statesman is buried in the North Transept—Statesmen’s Corner, as it began to be called. Pitt’s monument is close to the North Transept door. High up you will see the figure and keen, eagle face of Lord Chatham, who is represented as if speaking to a large audience, his arm outstretched as though to make his words the more impressive, reminding us that he was a great orator as well as statesman. Perhaps he looked like this when he made his impassioned protests against the unjust taxation of the American colonies.