The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1895-03-22

The funeral Of Henry v was
the most imposing perhaps ever
held in Westminster up to that
time. His three chargers were
led upto the altar, behind his
efigy, which was dressed in
royal robes and lay on the splen-
did. car, accompanied by white
robed priests innumerable Five
hundred men alarms, dressed in
black, with lances reversed, and
three hundred more with torches,
made an impressive scene. The
funeral helmet, saddle aud shield
of this warrior King were hung
on a cross beam. where although
frayed, and falling TO pieces
from age, they are still TO be
seen in theirplaces. Dean Stan
ley refers TO this helmet as: THE
very casque that did alright the
air at Agincourt.T
Literary associations are con
nected in our minds with West
minister Abbey almost as closely
as thehistorical memorials which
crowd its walls. The American.
visitor here for the first time,
anticipates ioyousiy the prospect
of looking on the famous Poets
Corner" And the very first
tomb he will come TO is, as il
should be, that of Geoffery chau
Ger, the father of English poetry.
He died in 1900, and his was the
first tomb in Poets Corner
Three hundred years later Ed
mund Spencer, the next great
poet after Chaucer was buried
here near his tomb. An ancient
poet wrote in latin verse HE
was the nearest to Chaucer 10
genius. and it is meet that his
grave should be next to his
Drayton said OF him M. sfaf
EdmundS psncerhad done enough
for the Immortality of his name
had he only given us his Sheps
herds Kalendar. 1t is presumE
ed that Drayton together with
his companions Ben Jonson and
Shakespeare attended his funeral,
for an ancient account says !:
Poets attended upon his hearse
and mournful eleg!es with the
pens that wrote them were
thrown into his tomb Cluster
ed near by, are the tombs, monr.
ments, or cenotaphs of Shake.
speare, Milton, Ben Jonson,
Campbell, etc, and the great
writers down TO our own time !;
such as Tennyson, Macauley,
Beaconfeld, Dickens, Browning
and our own Longfellow and
Lowell. Very few of them are
buried here.
Ben Jonson, the friend of
Shakespeare, was buried here in
the Nave, Poets Corner in an
upright position and a modern
paving stone now marks the
place; the ancient stone that COW
cred mis- remains was placed in
its present position against the
wall in 1921, to preserve its in.
scription: 20 rare Ben Jonson. y
His singular burial in a standing
position, is explained as follows:
lone day being rallied by the
Dean of Westminster about being
buried in Poets Corner. the
poet is said TO have replied II
am too poor for that and no one
will lay out funeral charges upon
rue. No, sir, six feet long, by
two feet wide is too mnch for me:
two feet by two will do for all /
want You shall have it,
said the Dean, and thus the con.
versation ended. The famous
Inscription 20 rare Ben Jon.
son, has been attributed to Sir
William Davenant. who succeed
ed Jonson as Poet Laureate and.
on whose tomb is found the same
expression: 20 rare Sir William
Davenant.r
shakespeare's monuments erect
ed here for more than a hundred
years after his death, was called
BY Horace Walpole. "a prepos-
ferrous monument this phrase