Heroic sailor soul,
Art passing on thy happier voyage now
Towards no earthly pole.”
Close by is the memorial to another Arctic explorer, Admiral Sir Leopold M‘Clintock, who died in 1907. It was he who discovered the remains of Franklin’s ships, and thus found out how he had died.
Before ending this long list of people who are gathered into remembrance in the Abbey, we must not forget the names of some of those who have served their fellow-men by special works of love and kindness.
Close to the great West Door is a fine statue of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, who did a great deal to make the lives of poor children healthier, happier, and better, and to whom England owes many improvements in the laws about work in factories and mines.
Lord Shaftesbury is remembered in Westminster as President of the Westminster Window Garden show, a flower show which was intended to encourage poor people to grow nice flowers in their windows, and so to brighten the dulness and ugliness of town streets, as well as to teach them something about Nature. Lord Shaftesbury used to come every year to give the prizes at this show, which used to be held in Dean’s Yard.
Lord Shaftesbury also took great interest in George Peabody’s scheme for improving the dwellings of the poor, and tried all he could to help on this good work. He died in 1883.
George Peabody, who gave such generous help towards building better houses for the poor, was an American. He died in London in 1869, and his body rested for a short time in the Abbey, close to the place where Lord Shaftesbury’s statue now stands.
Quite near this spot also is the grave of Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who died in 1907, and whose name will long be remembered for her works of charity.