THE CRYPT: NELSON’S TOMB.
THE CRYPT: WITH THE TOMB OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.
Near the eastern end of the South Aisle of the Crypt, under a very simple tomb, lie the mortal remains of the great Architect of the Cathedral. On a black marble slab, part of which is seen in the picture, are the following words:—Here lieth Sir Christopher Wren, Kt., the builder of this Cathedral Church of S. Paul, &c., who dyed in the year of our Lord MDCCXXIII, and of his age XCI. A singularly modest epitaph for so great a man, and that, too, at a period when fulsome phrases abounded. A little westward of the tomb, on a tablet affixed to the wall, are the memorable words, admirable in their brevity and point:—Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice. The tomb itself, including the black marble slab, is only sixteen-and-a-half inches in height. Closely adjoining the tomb, on its northern side, are buried two eminent presidents of the Royal Academy, Sir Frederick Leighton and Sir John Millais; at the extreme distance are seen, on the left side the bust of Sir John Alexander Macdonald, late Premier of the Dominion of Canada; and on the right side, that of Sir Henry Smith Park, Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan and China. Nearer to the spectator, on the right, is the memorial to Archdeacon Claughton, Bishop of Colombo, whilst on the left, is dimly seen a monumental brass, commemorating the Special Correspondents who fell in the Campaign in the Soudan; opposite to which, on the right, is the bust of the painter, James Barry.
THE CRYPT: WITH THE TOMB OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.
THE LIBRARY.
This noble room, situated at the west end of the Cathedral, immediately above the Chapel of the Order of S. Michael and S. George, contains an interesting and important collection of books; comprising a number of early English Bibles, a few ritual books, a large and valuable series of Sermons preached at Paul’s Cross or in the Cathedral; a few plays acted by the “Children of Paul’s,” some royal and other important autographs, and over ten thousand printed books, besides as many separate pamphlets.
In the view is seen a model of part of the Western Front of the Cathedral, once in the possession of Richard Jennings, the Master-builder of S. Paul’s. In the case on which it stands is the superb large paper copy of Walton’s Polyglot Bible (large paper copies are of great rarity); an exceedingly fine copy of the Prayer Book of 1662, and of the Bible of 1640, both of which belonged to Bishop Compton, the founder of the Library, whose portrait hangs upon its eastern wall. Just to the right of this case, is a cast of an important Danish Monumental Stone, found in 1852, in S. Paul’s Churchyard: it bears a Runic inscription.
In the glass case in the middle of the room are exposed to view a considerable number of interesting objects: copies of episcopal seals, a facsimile of the tonsure plate once used at S. Paul’s, a chain with which a book was fastened to the Library shelves; some medals connected with the history of the Cathedral; and some curious books. The finely carved brackets which support the gallery, long ascribed to Grinling Gibbons, have been ascertained to be the work of Jonathan Maine, carver, in 1708.