Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1896-10-29
QUEER WAX EFFIGlES.
Tho Groscsque Images of Heroes Stored
Away In Westminster Abbey.


Away In Westminster Abbey.
Years ago 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
storage place for the famous wax eih-
gies, the least grotesque and best pre-
served of which may still be seen there.
These wax statues are the mementos of
n strange oldtime ceremony. Long ago,
when a great man or woman died, it
was the custom to model representa-
tion of the deceased, dressed as IN l'fe,
wiIicn was carried in the funeral pro-
cession. After the burial the efligy was
set up in church as temporary monu-
ment. One odd feature of the practice
was that during the time that the etfigy
was on exhibition it was customary to
afiix to il, by means of paste or pins,
short poems or epitaphs complimentary
to the person represented. In the case
of a sovereign the statue was usually
left in position for month only, though
after Charles III. 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 efligles here in Westminster
date back to the Fourteenth century;
but all of the oldest ones are so mu-
tilated and defaced that they are not
shown. Many of them were of wood,
and have been wantonly stripped of the
rich garments which they wore. About
dozen of the latter figures are still
preserved, each standing stiflly in n
glass case by itself, and declsed, as they
are, in faded silk and tarnished tinsel,
they form so startling contrast to their
stately marble successors on the tombs
below, that it seems as if the coming up
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 III. 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 Gen. Monk,
clad in armor. The head OF the figure
is now bare, but it originally wore the
famous cap mentioned in the "Ingolds-
by Legends"
I thought on Naseby, Marston Moor. and
Worcesters crowning fight,
When on my ear sound there fell, 1t filled
me with alright,
AS thus in low, unearthly tones, / heard q
voice begin:
"This here's the cap of Central Monk! Sir,
please put summat in"
In the last century the yergers, when
showing these figures to visitors, came
10 use this cap as gentle hint that their
none too large wages might be accept
ably 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 originality That,
SIR says he, Il 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 for show pur-
poses, to increase the attractiyeness OF
the exhibit. That of Lord Nelson is in
teresting from the fact that it 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 paint
ing "Death of Nelson" he found at
tached 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. PauPs in spite Of
his famous exhortation to his men Mt
the battle of Cape st. Vincent, where he
cried: Westminster abbey, or glori-
Gus victory!"- Bennett Thrasher,
| in 81 Nicholas