The visitor, having explored all the Fine Art Courts as well as the several Courts of Manufacture, may now give his exclusive attention to the chefs-d’œuvre and valuable examples of ancient and modern sculpture, which he has not found in the Fine Art Courts; but which will arrest his eye from point to point, as he accompanies us in a walk through
THE NAVE AND TRANSEPTS.
Our starting-point shall be the screen of the kings and queens of England, at the south end of the building, containing casts of the regal statues at the new Houses of Parliament, Westminster, executed by Mr. John Thomas.
SCREEN OF THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND.
The screen itself is from the design of Mr. M. D. Wyatt, and is characterised by much originality and appropriateness of treatment. The series of monarchs is placed in chronological order, commencing, on the return side to the left (as we face the screen), with the kings of the Saxon heptarchy; and beneath them the Saxon kings, the first on the left being Egbert, by whom the greater number of the petty kingdoms were first consolidated. The Norman series commences, on the principal front, with William I. and his queen, above whom are the statues of St. George and St. Andrew. Amongst the various rulers of the state may be noticed as of great excellence, in that style of sculpture which has been termed the “Romantic,” Henry II., Berengaria, Henry V., Henry VI., Richard III., Edward VI., Charles I., Queen Henrietta, and Cromwell; this last was rejected by the Committee of the Houses of Parliament, but is clearly necessary for completing the historical series, which is concluded on the return side, to the right, with the royal personages of the reigning Guelph family, and a lower row of Saxon kings. An equestrian statue of her Majesty, by Baron Marochetti, stands here in the centre.
Quitting the screen, we are first attracted on our road by the Crystal Fountain, which occupied so conspicuous a place in the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. We will now, however, proceed on our tour, entering first the western end of
THE SOUTH TRANSEPT.
It is preferable, in order not to overlook any of the important objects which are stored in the several Transepts, to examine each Transept completely, as we enter it on our interesting tour, and after passing round both ends to resume our walk in the Nave, advancing up toward the north end of the Palace on the left-hand side, and returning down the right-hand or garden side. Turning then to the left, we proceed round this Transept, from left to right, noticing on our course the statues and other objects which are placed in the open space at each end. The first conspicuous one of these which we find is, a cast of the well-known equestrian statue of Charles I., from the original at Charing Cross. It was designed and executed, in 1633, by Hubert Le Sueur, a French sculptor, pupil of the celebrated John of Bologna, but was not at the time raised on its intended site. During the civil wars, the Parliament, wanting men more than statues, sold it to John Rivet, a brazier, living in Holborn; by whom it was kept concealed until the restoration of Charles II., when it returned again into the hands of the government, and was finally erected at Charing Cross in 1674. The pedestal is a work of the celebrated sculptor, Grinling Gibbons.
Beyond the statue of Charles I. in the central line, is placed that of James II. by Grinling Gibbons, cast from the original now in the court at the back of Whitehall. It is an excellent example of a portrait-statue treated in the classical style; and affords us a proof of the higher reach of Gibbons’s genius; whose well-earned reputation in the seventeenth century, we may remark, rested more especially on his works in ornamental carving, of which the exquisitely cut fruits, flowers, wreaths, and other ornaments on the façade of St. Paul’s, London, are examples.