An actress, Pritchard, and Booth, an actor, have also very
distinguished monuments erected here to their memories.
For Newton, as was proper, there is a very costly one. It is above,
at the entrance of the choir, and exactly opposite to this, at the
end of the church, another is erected, which refers you to the
former.
As I passed along the side walls of Westminster Abbey, I hardly saw
any thing but marble monuments of great admirals, but which were all
too much loaded with finery and ornaments, to make on me at least,
the intended impression.
I always returned with most pleasure to the poets' corner, where the
most sensible, most able, and most learned men, of the different
ages, were re-assembled; and particularly where the elegant
simplicity of the monuments made an elevated and affecting
impression on the mind, while a perfect recollection of some
favourite passage, of a Shakespeare, or Milton, recurred to my idea,
and seemed for a moment to re-animate and bring back the spirits of
those truly great men.
Of Addison and Pope I have found no monuments here. The vaults
where the kings are buried, and some other things worth notice in
the abbey, I have not yet seen; but perhaps I may at my return to
London from the country.
I have made every necessary preparation for this journey: In the
first place, I have an accurate map of England in my pocket; besides
an excellent book of the roads, which Mr. Pointer, the English
merchant to whom I am recommended, has lent me. The title is "A new
and accurate description of all the direct and principal cross roads
in Great Britain." This book, I hope, will be of great service to
me in my ramblings.
I was for a long time undecided which way I should go, whether to
the Isle of Wight, to Portsmouth, or to Derbyshire, which is famous
for its natural curiosities, and also for its romantic situation.
At length I have determined on Derbyshire.
During my absence I leave my trunk at Mr. Mulhausen's (one of Mr.
Pointer's senior partners), that I may not be at the needless
expense of paying for my lodging without making use of it. This Mr.
Pointer lived long in Germany, and is politely partial to us and our
language, and speaks it well. He is a well-bred and singularly
obliging man; and one who possesses a vast fund of information, and
a good taste. I cannot but feel myself happy in having obtained a
recommendation to so accomplished a man. I got it from Messrs.
Persent and Dorner, to whom I had the honour to be recommended by
Mr. Von Taubenheim, Privy Counsellor at Berlin. These
recommendations have been of infinite use to me.
