the exquisite Percy monument in Beverley Minster, and the noble series of tombs in Tewksbury Church, (a fitting receptacle for them;) with the degraded specimens-alas, a most prolific class! which were produced during nearly two centuries dating from the middle of the Sixteenth1. Whilst standing in the south aisle of the choir of Winchester Cathedral, the spectator may contrast at one glance the altar tomb of De Vaux, the chantry of Fox, and the clumsy statue of Sir John Clobery (the friend of General Monk) ornamented with all kinds of military trophies. A long interval elapsed between the erection of the first and last of these monuments, but what a retrograde movement will be observed in the arts both of design and sculpture!

Amongst the works of an earlier day, the altartomb with its recumbent effigies, (occasionally surmounted by a gorgeous and appropriate canopy,) conveys to the mind of the spectator a feeling of solemnity and awe. The supplicating attitude of the

I am not forgetful of the splendid specimens of genius, which during the latter part of this dark period were produced by the chisels of Roubiliac and a few other artists. To whatever censures the works of the former may be open, (and I have heard severe ones from a master in the art,) the mind which could conceive, and the hand which could execute the statue of Newton, and the figures of Bishop Hough and Lady Elizabeth Nightingale, will always be spoken of with reverence by me.

ecclesiastics and warriors who sleep below, awaiting their awful summons, associates well with our hope to be "numbered with the saints in glory everlasting;" and when the eye glances on them in the hour of prayer, feelings are awakened which ought not to be hastily dismissed.

The Knight's bones are dust,

And his good sword rust;

His soul is with the Saints, I trust®.

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Walpole says that these tombs admitted no grace, nor required any," but how many of them actually possess it, and that to a high degree? A judge of purer taste than Walpole, speaking of one of these monuments, dwells with feeling on the solemn repose of the principal figure in his last prayer for mercy to the Throne of Grace; on the delicacy of thought in the group of angels bearing the soul, and the tender sentiment of concern variously expressed in the relations ranged in order round the basement, carrying the thoughts not only to other ages, but other states of existence. Modern sculptors of the highest celebrity may be quoted as having evinced their admiration of this style of monument, by a successful adoption of it; amongst them we may number Banks, Westmacott, and Chantrey.

These fine altar-tombs gave place to piles of

s Coleridge.

Flaxman's Lectures, p. 42.

marble and stone as offensive to the eye of taste, as the monument of Sir Cloudesley Shovel in later times, of which Addison so justly complains. A simple description of their more striking features will sufficiently explain their deformity, and this has been done with accuracy by Mr. Bloxam, in his useful work on the Monumental Architecture and Sculpture of Great Britain. "Altar-tombs with recumbent effigies beneath circular arcades, the soffits of which are richly panelled, surmounted by highly finished entablatures, which are supported at the angles by columns of the different orders; above these, other arcades and entablatures of smaller dimensions, supported also by columns, often arise; the whole is finished with obelisks and escutcheons surrounded with scroll work. These stately memorials are composed of various coloured marbles, fancifully decorated with painting, gilding, and sculpture, and present a combination and infinite variety of arches, columns, tablets, pyramids, obelisks, escutcheons, arabesques, and scroll work "."

To exemplify the unsightliness of these structures, let us contrast two monuments closely adjoining each other in the Church of Stratford-upon-Avon; that of Sir Hugh Clopton, recently restored in a most skilful manner, and the overcharged and tasteless

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one to the memory of George Carew, Earl of Totness, who died in 1628. Let us also compare the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in his beautiful Chapel at Warwick, with that in the same Chapel of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, quoted by Mr. Bloxam, as a gorgeous specimen" of the debased style. "The figures on the former tomb," says Flaxman, are so natural and graceful, the architecture so rich and delicate, that they are not excelled by any sculpture in Italy of the same kind at this time, although Donatello and Ghiberti were living x.: The latter monument, on the other hand, represents rather a mountain of confectionary than a solemn sepulchral memorial.

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To receive these walls of stone, for such from their vast dimensions they may be termed, what havoc has

Lectures, p. 44.

"The pride of this Minister never appeared so conspicuous as in the legends and ornaments of his tomb. These funeral honours engaged us in some common reflections on the folly of such expedients to perpetuate human grandeur." Hurd's Dialogues, (4th Ed.) vol. i. p. 143.

The reader may recollect the monuments of Edward Earl of Hertford in Salisbury Cathedral, of Villiers Duke of Buckingham, in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and of Sir G. Manners, and his family, in Bakewell Church rivalling each other in size and ugliness. It would seem that, according to the higher rank of the party, the mass of marble and masonry became the more overwhelming. Perhaps the ne plus ultra of absurdity may be found in Swinbrook Church, Oxfordshire. The Monuments of the Fettiplace family, erected in the reigns of