It made them so hard-hearted,
To give command it should not stand,
But be taken down and carted.”
Lilly,[[54]] writing in 1715, says that part of the stones were employed in paving the front of Whitehall, whilst some other stones were made into knife hafts and other articles which, when polished, looked like marble.
[54]. Lilly, “Observations on the Life of King Charles I.” cf. Edward Walford, “Old and New London,” iii, pp. 123 et seq.
The cross in the forecourt of the South Eastern Railway station at Charing Cross was erected from the designs of the late Mr. Edward Middleton Barry in 1864-1865, and is the result of his own desire to have the opportunity of reproducing the Eleanor memorial at Charing. Mr. Barry was a learned as well as a distinguished architect, and visited Northampton and Waltham Crosses many times before deciding on the design of the monument he proposed to erect. It is well worthy of careful study as expressing the ideas formed by a conscientious artist and student of the appearance of the old cross; especially it shows the desire to give the idea of the original builders, and to avoid the travesties of construction which have not infrequently been erected purporting to be after the fashion of an Eleanor Cross. Unhappily the motive which renders the crosses at Geddington, Northampton and Waltham so entirely appropriate, and which adds so much to their interest, cannot be transferred to the new site.[[55]]
[55]. The author is indebted for information respecting Mr. Barry’s cross to Mr. T. Harrison Myres, of Preston, who was one of Mr. Barry’s pupils in 1864, and afterwards his confidential clerk.
Blackfriars, London.
It was a custom of the time for devout persons to desire that the heart should be removed after death, and taken to some peculiarly holy place. Queen Eleanor had taken special interest in the community of the Black Friars, and especially in the Church which they had just built in London. By her own special request her heart was to be taken to this church, and Edward took special pains that a tomb should be erected worthy of containing this relic.
There is little knowledge of the design for this monument. A certain John le Convers seems to have been a clerk dealing with the payments, while Adam, a well-known goldsmith of the time, and much in the confidence of the King and Queen, was asked to make an angel to support the casket containing the heart. In addition to this figure, which was of metal and gilt as were Torel’s great effigies, statues ornamented the tomb. These were no doubt of the same design as those erected in other places. They were the work of Alexander the “Imaginator” and Dyminge de Legeri, and very probably of the same character as those at Lincoln. Alexander also constructed certain iron work around this monument. William de Suffolk made three small images in metal for the Blackfriars tomb.