Leaving behind Oxford and its history of a thousand years, at 5 P. M. we are in still more ancient London—a world immediately before us. CHAPTER IX. ONDON, JUNE 16.-After enjoying for a few days the elegant hospitalities of an English family whose urgent invitation to make them a visit we found it hard to decline, we are settled down in a private boarding house on Queen's Road, in Bayswater West, near the Royal Oak, and two minutes' walk from Kensington Park. We are likewise within one minute's walk of a station of the Metropolitan Underground Railway, by which we can go to almost any part of the city and return for from four pence to nine pence the single passage; or we can take an omnibus either from Kensington Garden or Royal Oak for about the same price. Our first day in London being Sunday, we immediately turned our steps to that great center of attraction, Westminster Abbey, where we attended service. On that occasion, and during subsequent visits, we have for hours been deeply absorbed in wandering through this wilderness of tombs, busts, statues, and other monuments of the distinguished dead. We were first drawn to the Poet's Corner, and at once to the slab over Charles Dickens' grave, upon which lay a cross of faded flowers. Above stand the busts of Macaulay, Thackeray, and others, the statues of Shakspeare, Addison, Thomas Campbell, and Thomson, and close by, the statues, busts, or other monuments of Garrick, Goldsmith, Gay, Southey, Prior, Milton, Chaucer, Dryden, Beaumont, Gray, Spenser, Samuel Johnson, Sheridan, Cowley, Ben Jonson, and many others. In one of the principal aisles we stood over the new-made grave of Dr. Livingstone, indicated by a marble slab in the floor, bearing his name and date of death; and on this slab some friendly hand had placed a wreath of flowers. In another part of the church is a monumental bust of Sir John Franklin, with appropriate inscriptions-the affectionate tri bute of Lady Franklin, recently deceased. scribed from this monument the following: "O ye frost and cold, O ye ice and snow, We tran Bless ye the Lord: praise Him and magnify His name forever. On the wall oppositè is a monumental slab to Isaac Watts. The inscription on the base of Addison's statue is as follows: "Whoever thou art, venerate the memory of Joseph Addison, in whom Christian faith, virtue, and good morals found a continual patron; whose genius was shown in verse, and every exquisite kind of writing; who gave to posterity the best examples of pure language, and the best rules for living well, which remain, and ever will remain sacred; whose weight of argument was tempered with wit, and accurate judgment with politeness, so that he encouraged the good and reformed the improvident, tamed the wicked, and in some degree made them in love with virtue. He was born in the year 1672, and his fortune being increased gradually, arrived at length to public honors. Died in the forty-eighth year of his age, the honor and delight of the British nation." This epitaph on Addison, written by Thomas Tickle, is inscribed on the marble slab which marks the spot where he was buried: "Ne'er to these chambers, where the mighty rest, Since their foundation, came a nobler guest; Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed A fairer spirit, or more welcome shade. Oh, gone forever! take this long adieu, And sleep in peace next thy lov'd Montegue." Next to Addison's is the grave of Charles Montegue, the first Lord Halifax, who lived in the reigns of William III. and George I. The statue of Shakspeare is very graceful, and the likeness bears a strong resemblance to his portrait in his old house at Stratford-on-Avon. In the left hand is a scroll, on which appear the following lines from "The Tempest:" "The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, And, like the base fabric of a vision, Oliver Goldsmith's likeness is given in profile, under which, on the marble slab in the wall, is a Latin inscription, stating in substance that "he was eminent as a Poet, Philosopher, and Historian; that he scarcely left any species of writing unattempted, and none that he attempted, unimproved; that he was master of the softer passions, and could at pleasure command tears or provoke laughter; but in everything he said or did, good nature was predominant; that he was witty, sublime, spirited, and facetious; in speech pompous; in conversation elegant and graceful; that the love of his associates, fidelity of his friends, and the veneration of his readers had raised this monument to his memory." John Gay wrote his own epitaph, which we are told is censured by some for its levity. Nevertheless it is on his monument in these lines: "Life is a jest, and all things show it: I thought so once, but now I know it." Underneath are the following lines by Alexander Pope: "Of manners gentle, of affection mild; In wit a man, simplicity a child; With native humor temp'ring virtuous rage, Above temptation in a low estate, And uncorrupted e'en among the great; A safe companion and an easy friend, Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end; Striking their pensive bosoms, 'Here lies Gay!'' He was but forty-five when he died, in 1732. On the monument of Edmund Spenser is the following: "Here lies (expecting the coming of our Saviour Christ Jesus) the body of Edmund Spenser, the Prince of Poets in his time, whose divine spirit needs no other witness than the works which he left behind him. born in London in 1553, and died in 1598." He was The remains of a great many of the sovereigns of England and Scotland are interred here. There is a splendid monument to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, erected by her son, James I., soon after he ascended the throne. In 1612 he had her remains privately removed to this church from the Peterborough Cathedral, where they were first buried in 1587. He also caused to be erected here a magnificent monument to his predecessor, Queen Elizabeth. The inscription thereon says that "she was the mother of her country, and the patroness of religion and learning; she was herself skilled in many languages; adorned with every excellence of mind. and person, and endowed with princely virtues beyond her sex; that in her reign religion was restored to its primitive purity; peace was established; money restored to its just value; domestic insurrection quelled; France delivered from intestine troubles; the Netherlands supported; the Spanish Armada defeated; Ireland, almost lost by the secret contrivances of Spain, recovered; the revenues of both universities improved by a law of provisions, and, in short, all England enriched; that she was a most |