In This Chapel Have Been Interred Most Of The English Kings Since
Richard III., Whose Tombs Are No Small Ornament To It, Particularly
That Of Henry VII., The Founder, Which Stands In The Middle Of The
Area Towards The East End.
The tomb is composed of a curious pedestal whose sides are adorned
with various figures, as the north with
Those of six men, the east
with those of two cupids supporting the king's arms and an imperial
crown; on the south side, also, six figures, circumscribed - as those
on the north side - with circles of curious workmanship, the most
easterly of which contains the figure of an angel treading on a
dragon. Here is also a woman and a child, seeming to allude to Rev.
xii.; and on the west end the figure of a rose and an imperial
crown, supported with those of a dragon and a greyhound: on the
tomb are the figures of the king and queen, lying at full length,
with four angels, one at each angle of the tomb, all very finely
done in brass.
The screen or fence is also of solid brass, very strong and
spacious, being in length 19 feet, in breadth 11, and the altitude
11, adorned with forty-two pillars and their arches; also, twenty
smaller hollow columns and their arches in the front of the former,
and joined at the cornice, on which cornice is a kind of acroteria,
enriched with roses and portcullises interchanged in the upper part,
and with the small figures of dragons and greyhounds (the supporters
aforesaid) in the lower part; and at each of the four angles is a
strong pillar made open, or hollow, composed in imitation of diaper
and Gothic archwork; the four sides have been adorned with thirty-
two figures of men, about a cubit high, placed in niches, of which
there are only seven left, the rest being stolen away (one Raymond,
about the 11th of Queen Elizabeth, having been twice indicted for
the same); and about the middle of the upper part of each of the
four sides is a spacious branch adorned with the figure of a rose,
where might on occasion be placed lamps. This admirable piece of
art is open at top, and has two portals, one on the north, the other
on the south side, all of fine brass.
This Royal founder's epitaph:
Septimus Henricus tumulo requiescit in isto,
Qui regum splendor, lumen et orbis erat.
Rex vigil et sapiens, comes virtutis, amatur,
Egregius forma, strenuus atque potens.
Qui peperit pacem regno, qui bella peregit
Plurima, qui victor semper ab hoste redit,
Qui natas binis conjunxit regibus ambas,
Regibus et cunctis faedere junctus erat.
Qui sacrum hoc struxit templum, statuitque; sepulchrum
Pro se, proque sua conjuge, proque domo.
Lustra decem atque; annos tres plus compleverit annos,
Nam tribus octenis regia sceptra tulit;
Quindecies Domini centenus fluxerat annus,
Currebat nonus, cum venit atra dies;
Septima ter mensis lux tunc fulgebat Aprilis,
Cum clausit summum tanta corona diem.
Nulla dedere prius tantum sibi saecula regem
Anglia, vix similem posteriora dabunt.
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