The tomb of Richard II. and his wife, of brass, gilt, and these
verses written round it:
Perfect and prudent, Richard, by right the Second,
Vanquished by Fortune, lies here now graven in stone,
True of his word, and thereto well renound:
Seemly in person, and like to Homer as one
In worldly prudence, and ever the Church in one
Upheld and favoured, casting the proud to ground,
And all that would his royal state confound.
Without the tomb is this inscription:
Here lies King Richard, who perished by a cruel death,
in the year 1369.
To have been happy is additional misery.
Near him is the monument of his queen, daughter of the Emperor
Wenceslaus.
On the left hand is the tomb of Edward I., with this inscription:
Here lies Edward I., who humbled the Scots. A.D. 1308.
Be true to your engagements.
He reigned forty-six years.
The tomb of Edward III., of copper, gilt, with this epitaph:
Of English kings here lieth the beauteous flower
Of all before past, and myrror to them shall sue:
A merciful king, of peace conservator,
The third Edward, &c.
Besides the tomb are these words:
Edward III., whose fame has reached to heaven. A.D. 1377,
Fight for your country.
Here is shown his sword, eight feet in length, which they say he
used in the conquest of France.
His queen's epitaph:
Here lies Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. Learn to live. A.D.
1369.
At a little distance, the tomb of Henry V., with this legend:
Henry, the scourge of France, lies in this tomb. Virtue subdues all
things. A.D. 1422.
Near this lies the coffin of Catherine, unburied, and to be opened
by anyone that pleases. On the outside is this inscription:
Fair Catherine is at length united to her lord. A.D. 1437.
Shun idleness.
The tomb of Henry III., of brass, gilt, with this epitaph:
Henry III., the founder of this cathedral. A.D. 1273. War is
delightful to the unexperienced.
It was this Henry who, one hundred and sixty years after Edward the
Confessor had built this church, took it down, and raised an entire
new one of beautiful architecture, supported by rows of marble
columns, and its roof covered with sheets of lead, a work of fifty
years before its completion. It has been much enlarged at the west
end by the abbots. After the expulsion of the monks, it experienced
many changes; first it had a dean and prebendaries; then a bishop,
who, having squandered the revenues, resigned it again to a dean.
In a little time, the monks with their abbot were reinstated by
Queen Mary; but, they being soon ejected again by authority of
parliament, it was converted into a cathedral church - nay, into a
seminary for the Church - by Queen Elizabeth, who instituted there
twelve prebendaries, an equal number of invalid soldiers, and forty
scholars; who at a proper time are elected into the universities,
and are thence transplanted into the Church and State.
