These Particulars, With
Regard To This School, Were Related To Me By A Lady Living In The
Vicinity Of Windsor.
We went into St. George's Chapel, and there we were all exceedingly
interested and enchained in view of the marble monument to the
Princess Charlotte.
It consists of two groups, and is designed to
express, in one view, both the celestial and the terrestrial aspect of
death - the visible and the invisible part of dying. For the visible
part, you have the body of the princess in all the desolation and
abandonment of death. The attitude of the figure is as if she had
thrown herself over in a convulsion, and died. The body is lying
listless, simply covered with a sheet, through every fold of which you
can see the utter relaxation of that moment when vitality departs, but
the limbs have not yet stiffened. Her hand and a part of the arm are
hanging down, exposed to view beneath the sheet.
Four figures, with bowed heads, covered with drapery, are represented
as sitting around in mute despair. The idea meant to be conveyed by
the whole group is that of utter desolation and abandonment. All is
over; there is not even heart enough left in the mourners to
straighten the corpse for the burial. The mute marble says, as plainly
as marble can speak, "Let all go; 'tis no matter now; there is no more
use in living - nothing to be done, nothing to be hoped!"
Above this group rises the form of the princess, springing buoyant and
elastic, on angel wings, a smile of triumph and aspiration lighting up
her countenance.
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