In the centre are two inscription-tablets, surmounted by a figure of Fame blowing a trumpet, and on either side of these is a semicircular arch, supported upon black marble columns, with foliated capitals.
Cavendish Monument, Edensor Church.
In one of these arched niches is sculptured the suit of armour, with helmet, gauntlets, &c.—hung in the niche in natural form, but without the body—of Henry Cavendish, of Tutbury, eldest son of Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, by his wife, who afterwards became the celebrated Countess of Shrewsbury; in the other, in same manner, are sculptured the earl’s empty coronet, robes of state, and sword, the body being gone, of the first Earl of Devonshire, who was the second son of the same Sir William Cavendish and the Countess of Shrewsbury. In front stands an altar-tomb, on which rest the effigies of these two brothers; that of the eldest (Henry Cavendish) represented as a skeleton, and the other (William Cavendish, first Earl of Devonshire) wrapped in a winding sheet, the heads being placed at opposite ends. Over these effigies is a slab of marble, supported upon eight marble pillars.
Tomb of the Sixth Duke of Devonshire.
In the churchyard are many interesting inscriptions, which the visitor may well while away an hour or two in examining. Here, in a grassy enclosure at the top of the churchyard, too, lies the “good duke,” under a plain and simple coped tomb, with a foliated cross, and this simple inscription on its south side:—
“William Spencer Cavendish,
Sixth Duke of Devonshire.
Born May 21, 1790. Died January 18, 1858.”