Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1843-09-19
BY c. L. SHOLEs.
LETTERS FROM Mr.. WEED.

|
Correspondence of the Albany Evening Journal.
LONDON, July, 81.
S-and myself have dined with DR..
Samuel Johnson! Are you incredulous?
Then let me explain. We dined at the
"Dr. Samuel Johnson Tavern" Steak
and Chop House, in s.Bolt Court" where.
the great English scholar and moralist
lived. In entering the threshold, passed
so many hundred times by the Author OF
Rasselas, emotions Of reverence and awe
came over me which the presence or person
icaton of genius, virtue or piety only can
inspire. Would that these walls could i'm
part 10 visitors some portion of the ETHEREAL
spirit with which their former i,lustrious
occupant was so deeply imbued.
When DIR. Johnson came to London he
took up his residence in Court which still
bears his name; but he soon removed TO
the house | refer to in .BoltCourt," where
he resided many years, and where so many
Of his achievements in Letters and Litera-
ture were accomplished. These Courts
both run off FIeet-street, and are in the |
vicinity Of Temple Bar and the Strand. IL
The room in which DR.. Johnson read and
wrote, upon the first floor, is projection
from the main building about twelve fee.
long and eight wide, with fiat roof, thr'g h
which he had sky-light constructed
This room remains as he left it, through
the other portions of the building have been
slightly modernized.
| have been to Westminster-Abbey, that
magnificent aud sublime sepulchre for
Monarchs, Princes, Philosophers, Phlan-
thropists, Poets and Painters. All that
had heard and read of the architectural
and historical wonders Of the Abbey, into
whose vaults, chapels, naves and inches,
the ashes Of the iliustrious dead Of eight
centuries nave been gathered, left me
wholly unprepared for the granduer and
gorgeousness Of the memorials here reveal
ell. Here repose all that remains Of the
mortality Of those who were ennobled
either by birth or by deeds, with all that
marble and brass can do to perpetuate their
fame. But tombs and tables and monu-
ments and statues, however ambitiously
adorned or exquisl'ely wrought. serve far
more effectually to illustrate Creators
power, than to magnify creatures rank
or name.
fingered about these silent chambers
of the mighty dead with inquirng eyes,
until the vsiter's hours had expired
Westminster Abbey has been SO often de-
scribec that it is a relief to feel that my
wholly inadequate powers need not be
charged with task OF such difficulty and
magnitude. And even were it otherwise,
| should not have the presumption to at
=. To Of ho fb0u dc
of comparatively ignoble whose undistin-
guished ashes rest here, there are nearly
four hundred tablets, monuments, maui
soleums, statues or other obituary memorials
Of persons whose history and character
constitutes the written annals Of England.
II some Of the inspections upon these
monuments strike others as they do me,
snail not weary your patience transcribing
a few Of them.
The Duke Of Buckingham, who was
distinguished during the reign Of Charles
|. lies in brass effigy, with q Roman cos
tune, upon the altar with this inscription:
81 lived doubtful, not dissolute- Il die UT
resolved, not unresigned. Ignorance and
! error are incident to human nature.
rust in an Almighty and an all good God"
And below, both prepared by himself, is
this: "For my King often, for my Coun-
try ever"
The following is an extract from the
inscription upon the monument erected to
the memory of the young Princes who
were murdered by the order Of Richa I'd
the Third: 'Here lie the relics of Ed
ward V. King OF England, and his brother
Richard, Duke of York, who being con-
fined in the Tower, and there stifed with
pillows, were privately and meanly buried,
by order of their prefdious uncle, Richard
the Usurper. Their bones, long and anx-
iously inquired after. having laid 100
years i'll the rubbish Of the Tower stairs,
were on the 18th July, l674, by undoubted
proofs, discovered"
The monument Of the Duke and the
Duchess Of Newcastle is one Of the most
costly in the Abbey. They lie, in bronze
efhgy, under stately canopy, The in
scription, after setting forth the Dukes
qualities, states that his "Dutchess was of
a noble Family; for all the brothers were
valiant and all the sisters virtuous. This
Duchess was a wise, witty and learned
lady, which her many books do well testi-
fly, &C."
There is an expensive and exceedingly
appropriate monument to the memory of
Sir Isaac Newton, with an inscription clos
ing with this exclamation:-"Ho much
reason mortals have to pride themselves in
the existence of such and SO great an orna-
ment 10 the human racep'
The monument TO the memory Of Major
Andre. is beautifully sculptured group,
representing the first interview between
Washington and Andre. The figure of
Washington has been three different times
so badly muiiated that new heads were
supplied. There is now a striking and
undefaced likeness of the Father of his
country in Westminster Hail.
The colossal marble statue of George
Canning, and another of James Watt, both
Chantry. stands conspicuousIy in the Alb
bey, and are noble specimens Of the art. !
Would that the unwieldy, i'll designed, un.
American marble effigy Of Washington,
that shocks the national feelings of those |
who visit the Rotunda Of the Capitol at