Evening journal., 1890-02-24
A VERY GRAVE SUBJECT.
BEING A DESCRIPTION or THE
GRAVES OF CELEBRATED PEOPLE.

Tho Charnel House at Westminster Abbey.
The Pit in which Byron Is suried--rhe
Last Resting Place of Scott. Burns and
Wordsworth.
And 40 they have buried Browning IN
Westminster Abbey And this, too, when
II was his earnest and often expressed desire
20 be laid beside his dearly loved wife in the
Protestant cemetery at Florence; that lovely
spot have visited 50 many times, and never
without envyinR those who, ''aftcr life's ftful
fevc1,n have such a bed for the last long
sleep.
But no, it must be in Westminster Abbey;
because, being famous poet (at least tempo
rarilyl. be must have grave among other
famous folk--thongh the most famous poets
are not there Shakespeare is at Stanford,
Milton in St. Giles Cripplegate; Pope at
Twickenham. Byron in Northumberland,
Shelley and Keats in Rome, Wordsworth at
Grasmere and Burns At Dumfries. But the
company is good enough, though there is
some truth in what old Handel said: ''They
do bury fools theren-at least as many fools
az wise men.
OBJECTION TO WESTMINSTER
But my objection is that Westminster, de
spite its glory, is a horrible charnel house, as
all churches are which have long been places
Of sepulture In Dean stanley's most inter-
esting book upon the sanctuary and mauso-
leum, Of which he was the greatest and best
custodian, there are drawings which give
some faint idea OF the appearance Of the
crypt In these dark and dungeon like vaults
the collins are piled one upon another like
plank IN lumber yard. No privacy, no
order, no sanctity-nothing that we natu-
.i..
no graves; except that the whole crypt is a
grave, into which the illustrious dead arc
huddled, 20 be crowded and jostled by their
illnstrious predecessors.
Browning may well envy Shelley, Keats
and Wordsworth; who lie out in the open
where the wind may WOO the sod that covers
them, and the sunshine brighten IL, and the
rain bless it. He may envy any Of the poets
who are not in Westminster, except Byron;
whose post norton residence is, if possible,
more unpleasant than his own. For the an
eient abbey is the center Of great and glorious
memories which partly redeem the charnel
house beneath; while Hucknall-Torkard has
no redeeming feature whatever. Standing in
the midst of the dirtiest and most unprepos-
sessing village / have seen In England, the
little old church is hopelessly ugly and dismal
within and without Yet they thrust poor
Byron, who SO dearly loved nature and sung
its praises as no other poet has, into a
wretched pit where, as the sexton told me,
sixty corpses are rotting in a space probably
less than twenty-five feet square. Better have
him flung into the sea, which, of all nature,
he loved the most. Better have buried him
where hewanted TO be buried, close by his
dog Boatswain, ION the lawn at Newstead
tnt-there was one, and she the nearest and
dearest. who S~as not.afraid nor ashamed TO
follow him into lie Wretched pit. The
countess Of I,ovelace-"Ada~sole daughter OF
my house and hcart"--was by her own ur-
gent, dying request laid by the side of the
father whom she never saw after earliest in
fancy; whom she knew only through his
books, and whom she had been taught from
childhood TO distrust Il not TO hate. or all
the tributes which have been paid TO the sore
ly abused memory Of Byron the love Of his
dying daughter Is incomparably the finest,
the most touching, the most tender and true
Scott is more fortunate than Byron in the
matter Of burial, but there is room for criti-
cism even in his case. Dryburg is ruined
abbey much larger than Melrose, but not 50
attractive Why it was chosen as the last
house OF tho wizard Of the North, y instead
immortalizcd, l cannot guess. But 50 il is,
and the visitor is directed TO "St. Mary's
Aisle,H shattered remnant Of the original
building, for the object Of his pilgrimage. The
so called "aislen is perhaps twenty feet long
by ten wide, and faces lovely bit Of green
sward as smooth and soft as velvet. There
Is an alcoye, behind stout iron gate are four
large slabs OF granite in horizontal position,
raised little above the ground by side aud
end pieces OF the same material. The one
farthest from the gate belongs to Lady Scott,
the next to her famous husband, and the next
considerably lower down-to their only son,
Lieut.. Col Scott, who died while still young
man. At the feet Of these three lies John
Gibson Lockhart, the son-in-law and biogra-
pher Of the great novelist.
BURNS AND WORDSWORTH.
Burns, we know, was not consulted as TO
the disposition Of the body, which he was
only too glad 10 lay aside. He was originally
buried in an obscure corner Of the crowded
little cemetery attached to st. Michael's
church, Dumfries. But when his fame began
TO fill the world the people who allowed him
TO be dunned on his deathbed for a debt Of
SS5, gave the poet a "mansoleum," which
Burns would have unequivocally damned for
its bad taste and pretentious ugliness. 1t i.
Of light colored sandstone, octagonal in shape
perhaps fifteen or twenty feet 10 the top OF
the dome and ten or twelve from side TO side
Here is another gate, strong enough for Q
| prison, which has to be unlocked 'for a con.
sideration;n and then you see upon the floor
Of the prison a very large slab of sombeI
tinted stone, bearing very matter Of fact In
scription.
~ G,,a ,,,faf ,,,axr with tv,tl, he 40 1iaJ a,
ideal grave go to the little hamlet Of Gras
mere, not far from Lake Windermere, an,
still nearer TO Rydal, where Wordsworth
lived and died. This being pre-eminentl,
"the lake region Of England (Which, by tn
way, has given the name 70 "the Lake Poets
Wordsworth, Southey and the rest, Gras
mere has its lake, Of course; very small one
but very pretty. If it were In New insteai
Of Old England it would be called a pond
A short walk from its bright waters, alon
the high road, brings you TO rude, 10y
hrowed stone church, which looks its age
and it was dedicated eight years ago to 81
Oswald, whoever he may be- In its shado'
is the humble Gods Acre. where for thes
500 years graves have been dug by tile livin
TO be filed by Jhe dead.
A low, rustic gate stands invitingly oper
and a well trodden path leads 10 the sortl
east corner, where, incgosed by a ligat iro
fence, is a group Of grassy mounds. III
S one you have come TO see has "a plain toni
stone of dark slate at It's head, with tai
, simple inscription: civilian Wordsworth
r 1850 Mary Wordsworth, 1889
I Husband and wife are evidently united
O death as In liie-buried lin the same grav,
When l saw it, IN the early days OF an Ems
lish june il was thiclSiy covered with vii
"a