I am inclined to think them, in
many cases, faithful likenesses; and it brings them nearer to the mind,
to see these original sculptures,--you see the man at but one remove, as
if you caught his image in a looking-glass. The bust of Gay seemed to me
very good,--a thoughtful and humorous sweetness in the face. Goldsmith
has as good a position as any poet in the Abbey, his bust and tablet
filling the pointed arch over a door that seems to lead towards the
cloisters. No doubt he would have liked to be assured of so conspicuous
a place. There is one monument to a native American, "Charles Wragg,
Esq., of South Carolina,"--the only one, I suspect, in Westminster Abbey,
and he acquired this memorial by the most un-American of qualities, his
loyalty to his king. He was one of the refugees leaving America in 1777,
and being shipwrecked on his passage the monument was put up by his
sister. It is a small tablet with a representation of Mr. Wragg's
shipwreck at the base. Next to it is the large monument of Sir
Cloudesley Shovel, which I think Addison ridicules,--the Admiral, in a
full-bottomed wig and Roman dress, but with a broad English face,
reclining with his head on his hand, and looking at you with great
placidity. I stood at either end of the nave, and endeavored to take in
the full beauty and majesty of the edifice; but apparently was not in a
proper state of mind, for nothing came of it.
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