The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-09-22
QUEER WAX ErFlGIEs.
The arotssQus Images Of Heroes Stored
Away In Westminstsr Abbey.

The tlr0tesQua images OF heroes St0fen
Away In Westminster Abbey.
Years ago flight Of narrow stone steps
led TO the OratoFy above the chapel, but
these have long since been covered with
wood, end tho oratory Is used as a storage
place for the famous wax efigies, the least
grotesaue and best preserved of which may
still be seen there. These wax statues are
the mementos Of a strange old time oere-
mCny. Long ago, when great man Or
woman died, 1t was the custom to model o
representation Of the deceased, dressed as
In life, which was carried In the funeral
procession. After the burial the efiigy Was
Get up In church as temporary monu-
ment Ono odd feature of the practice was
that during the time that the ef1igy was
ON exhibition 1t was customary to affix to
1t, by means of paste or pins, short poems
or epitaphs complimentary to the person
represented. In the case of sovereign the
statue was usually 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 ef1gies here in Westminster
date back 10 the fourteenth century, but
all of the oldest ones are SO mutilated and
dafaced that they arc not shown. Many
of them were Of wood and have been wan
tonly stripped of tho rich garments which
they wore About dozen of the later fig
ures are still preserved, each standing
stifly in glass case by itself, and decked,
as they are, in faded silk and furnished
tinsel, they form SO startling a contrast to
their stately marble successors on the
tombs below that 1t seems as II the COM
ing up Of this one short flight of steps had
translated the visitor from the consecrated
atmosphere Of the abbey into the vulgar
air Of Mime. Tussaud's establishment.
The oldest figure here Is that Of Charles
II. 1t 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 General Monk clad in
Rrmor. The head Of the figure is now bare,
but 1t originally wore the famous cup men.
toned in the "Ingoldsby Legends"
thought on Naseby, Marston Moor, and
Worcester's browning fight,
When on mine car sound there fell, 1t filled
me with alright,
As thus In low, unearthly tones, l heard
voice begin:
"Ths here's TIE cap Of Central Monki 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 scceptably
increased by 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 a conversation with the
verger who was his guide: PRAY, friend,
what might this cap have cost originally"
"That, SIR" says he; II 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 un-
questionably put In by the officers of the
abbey merely for show purposes, to In
crease the attractiveness of the exhibit.
That of Lord Nelson is interesting from
the fact that 1t Is dressed in a suit of
clothes which the admiral once wore.
There seems good reason to believe this to
be true, since, when Maclise borrowed the
figure as model while he was painting
his famous painting, death of Nelson"
he found attached to the lining Of the hat
the eye patch without which the admiral,
who was blind in one eye, never appeared.
Nelson Is buried In St. Pauls In spite of
his famous exhortation to his men at the
battle Of Cape st. Vincent, where he cried,
Westminster abbey or glorious victoryp'