The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-10-01
QUEER Wax EFFloIes.


The Grotesque Images Of Heroes storsd
Away in Westminster Abbey.
Years ago a fight Of narrow stone
steps led to the oratory above the chapel
but these have long since been covered
with wood, and the oratory is used as q
storage place for the famous wax eff
gies, the least grotesque and best pre-
served of which may still be seen there.
These wax statues are the nementos Of
q strange oldtinse ceremony. Long ago.
when a great man or woman died, il
was the custom to model q representa-.
lion of the deceased, dressed as in life,
which was carried in the funeral pro
cession. After the burial the effigy waa
set up in church as a temporary monu-
ment. One odd feature Of the practice
was that during the time that the efogy
was on exhibition it was customary to
afiix to it, by means of paste or pins,
short poems or epitaphs complimentary
to the person represented. In the case
of sovereign the statue wassCsually
left in position for month only, though
after Charles II. died his wax figure
stood for two centuries over his tomb
in the chapel of henry VII, and was the
only monument he had.
The royal effgies here in Westminster
date back to the Fourteenth century;
but all of the oldest ones are go mu-
tilated and defaced that they are moi
shown. Many of them were of wood,
and have been wantonly stripped of the
rich garments which they wore. About
q dozen of the latter figures are still
preserved, each standing stif1y in
glass case by itself, and de..ked. as they
are, in faded silk AID furnished tinsel
they form so startling contrast to theiI
stately marble successors on the tombf
below, that it seems as If the coming uI
of this one short fight of steps had
translated the visitor from the conse-
Grated atmosphere Of the abbey into the
vulgar air of Nine. Tussaud's establish.
ment.
The oldest figure here is that OF
Charles II. It is dressed in the blue and
red velvet robes Of the Garter, trimmed
with superb old point lace. By his side
in another case, Is figure of Gen. Monk,
clad in armor. The head of the figure
IS row bare, but it originally wore ths
famous cap mentioned in the "Ingoids.
by Legends"
] thought on Naseby, Marston Moor ant
Worcester's GROWING fight,
When on my ear a sound there fell, II fille<
me with alright,
As thus in low, unearthfy tones. heard Q
voice begin:
s~fhfs here's the cap Of Central Monk! Sir
please put summat IN"
In the last century the vergers, when
showing these figures to visitors, came
TO use this cap as gentle hint that their
none too large wages might be accept
ably increased by a small coin dropped
into it. Goldsmith, who has recorded
an account of his visit to the abbey,
says of this cap, in an account of
with the verger who wa.
his guide: Pray, friend, what might
this cap have cost originality That
SIR says he, L don't know; but this cap
is all the wages / have for my trouble.
The two latest figures. those Of the |
earl of Chatham and Admiral Nelson,
were unquestionably put in by the Off
GERS OF the abbey merely fer show pur- |
poses, to increase the attractiveness OF |
the exhibit. That Of Lord Nelson is in |
teresting from the fact that 1t is dressed |
In q suit of clothes which the admiral |
once wore. There seems good reason
to believe this to be true, since, when |
Maelise borrowed the figure as model |
while he was painting his famous paint
ing Death of Nelson" he found at
tached to the lining OF the hat the eye
patch without which the admiral, who
was bknd in ioDe eye. never appeared.
Nelson is buried in st. Paul's in spite Of |
his famous exhortation to his men at
the battle Of Cape St. Vincent, where he
cried: Westminster abbey, or glori-
BUS victory!"-Max Bennett Thrasher,
n st. Nicholas.