The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-07-16

Dean! EEGLIsH KIEas-INTEREsr fic Evp,o-
RATioNs AMONG THE ROYAL. TONES OPP WrsT.
MINISTER ABBEY onCure ID. Conway writes
from london to the Cincinnati Commercial
as follows: - - o''' -
1.-The Dean of Westminster hns inst o;von
before The Society of Antiqiarians an into
resting account of several Kings skulls
Shakespeare's words, sCome, let us sit ON Tho
ground and talk OF the death of King.
are hardly polite enough to quote at mo-
mcnt when so many Princes are living
around loose; but the Antiquarians fell into
this vein on Thursday evening, and lie.
tened with deep attention to bean Stan.
ley's narrative. He has just explored
the tomb of Richard 1.-THE King whose
splendid beginning and miserable end made
old Froissart say Il have seen two strange
things in my time Two sets of human bones
were found in the tomb of Richard, male and
female; it was certain that the female
was Annie, of Bohemia, and the Dean discuss
cd whether the Others were the remains
of Richard. The measurement of the
skull showed it to be below the average
size of the English skull; however,
MIR. Richmond thought the skull would
agree with the character of the Kings.
Sprigs of poplar, considered in his
time a preventive against witchcraft
were found in the tomb. BUSHES wers
there. also, proving that the tomb, though
ransacked, had never been actually entered
Some rubbish was found which must have
been cast in by passers-by. The tomb O
Henry Ill. had also been explored by tht
Dean. About the identity of Henry>s re
mains there is no doubt. The casting of thu
etfigy upon it is nearly perfect, though i
was among the first Of such castings. The
coffin was found covered with cloth of gold
and that covered with dust. The cloth haG
so lost its strength that breath from tht
mouth would change any bit of il to dust
The Dean is responsible for having dis
turbed the bones Of many an old monarch
in the interest of science. It is curious thai
while so many of such tombs have beer
opened, no one yet dares to suggest the eX
ploration of that Of Shakespeare. The toni
of William Rufus was opened to fnt
whether the story of his death by the arrow
of Tyrrel was true, as the legend said thai
the arrow had been buried with the King
Sure enough the arrow was found. Also
the grave of John Hampden was explored
to see if it were true that he haC
lost hand in bis engagement witt
frlnce RUPERT, aLu tue huiPutdueu uauo
was found. BUT although the fearful imprc
cation written on the supposed-only sup
posed-sraye Of Shakespeare leads many tc
suspect that some explanation of the con.
fessed mystery surrounding him lies buried
there. That imprecation seems to be the
reason why no one proposes to dig into
it. Indeed, so much superstition Ia.
vests that grave in the Stratford church
that it is likely that the villagers would
rise up in arms at any such attempt
as was once made by Miss Bacon, the Ameri
can monoluaniac, whom some Of the STRAIT
fordians say. no sooner raised pick over
the grave than she was struck with mad
ness. But 1T is plain from the explorations
of Dean Stanley in Westminster Abbey that
such divinity doth not hedge about Hing
rs hedges about the immortal Williams as
the French call him."