Altar-Piece-Great East Window,

On each side the haut-pas, or highest step towards the altar, is a desk furnished with two steps. The altarpiece is a fine bas-relief of The Salutation, modern, designed by LIGHTOLER, and executed by COLLINS. It is placed under a gothic canopy, between two shrines, of which the appearance is little in harmony with that of the surrounding structure. Raised high against the wall, on each side the altar, is a shrine, highly and elegantly wrought, though injured by the daubings of the painter; in which, according to DUGDALE, were formerly placed two images of pure gold, each of 20lb. weight.

ON each side of the west entrance, is a beautiful slender niche and over the door, is an intended organ loft, of which the front, is ornamented with shields in quatre foils, with a rich fascia of vine-leaves and grapes, and another of roses above it. In the centre of both are the arms of Beauchamp, quartering chequé or and az, a chevron Erm, being the arms of the old Earls of Warwick; and on a shield of pretence, the arms of Fitzwalter quartering those of Despenser: the whole is supported by an angel. On each side the door is a fascia of great and small oak leaves, in which are introduced a rose, a griffin, flowers, lion, horse, two bears supporting a shield, two ragged staves and a vine branch. It cannot be sufficiently regretted that the window over this entrance is glazed with modern sash square, and is, in every respect, discordant with the architecture of the Chapel.

THE great eastern window, over the altar, still in a good state of preservation, is composed of two mouldings, surrounding a central compartment, divided into three days of two stories; the whole of which is filled with

Monument of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

painted glass, representing numerous figures, coats of arms, and various devices, with names and broken sentences interspersed. Of these a minute account is given by Mr. GOUGH, from which an extract will be found in the Appendix.*

In the north and south windows, there is no painted glass except in the tracery; and these are damaged and indistinct. The figures appear, however, to have been angels, playing on musical instruments. Those in the centre of the north window, robed and playing on musical instruments, are peculiarly fine. Broken sentences and musical instruments are interspersed.

HAVING attempted some account of this small but most beautiful chapel-we proceed to describe the stately and elegant monument of its founder, RICH. BEAUCHAMP; for the reception of which it was expressly designed. This is an altar tomb of grey marble, placed near the centre of the chapel. On the slab lies the figure of the Earl, in brass gilt, large as life, and inferior to none in England, except that of HEN. VII. in Westminster Abbey. It is placed on a table of the same metal, and is protected by a herse of brass hoops gilt. The hair is short and curled; and the head rests on a helmet, encircled with a coronet. The hands are elevated, but not joined. The body is clad in plate armour, and the sword hangs at the left side. At the feet are a griffin and a bear muzzled, both sitting. At the extremities of the poles of the herse, are enamelled shields, pendant from oak leaves, in starred quatre foils. Four of these shields, at each end, have the Beauchamp Arms quartered with those of the old Earls;

Appendix, No. 7.

Monument of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

and a shield of pretence, charged with three chevronels, and a fret quarterly, the last of which is the Despenser's arms. At the eastern extremity of the middle pole, are the arms of England and France; and at the western, St. George's Cross.

THE niches, or housings, which surround this tomb, are exceedingly rich and beautiful. They are fourteen in number; and in them are placed elegant statues, in copper gilt, male and female, all of them representing noble personages, and relations of the founder.* Underneath are their coats of arms, enamelled on shields, in starred quatre foils. They are divided by smaller niches, in which are whole length figures of angels, holding scrolls, supported on perks. On the scrolls are inscribed "sit Deo laus et gloria: defunctis misericordia,"

THE inscription in old English, comprised in twolines, is let into the upper ledge of the tomb, and is whimsically interspersed throughout, with the bear and ragged staff, which occurs not less than 40 times. It imports that "RICHARD, Earl of Warwick, after a long illness, died at the castle of Rouen, in Normandy, where he resided as Lieutenant-General of France, during the minority of HENRY VI.; that his body, deposited in a stone coffin, was brought over to England, and conveyed with funeral pomp to Warwick; that it was placed near the monument of his father, till the chapel was finished; and that, finally, it was interred beneath the tomb prepared for it, according to the direction of his will, 1460.

See Appendix, No. 8.

See the History of this Earl, p. 32.

Q

Monument of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

ABOUT the middle of the 17th century, the floor of the chapel fell in; when EARL RICHARD'S coffin, being either accidentally broken, or purposely unclosed, the body was found perfect and fresh: but on letting in the air, it rapidly fell to decay. The Ladies of Warwick had rings and other ornaments made of the hair.

BESIDES the tomb of its founder, there are, in this chapel, three other splendid monuments, of which the first in order of time, is that of ROBERT DUDLEY, Earl of Leicester, the favourite of QUEEN ELIZABETH, which stands against the north wall. It consists of four Corinthian pillars, supporting an entablature, placed over an arch, adorned in front with a rich fascia, formed by cinque foils and the ragged staff, alternately disposed. Above the entablature, is a grand atchievement in the centre; and on each side, a kind of pyramidical temple, before which, stand a male figure on the right, and a female on the left. Just below the arch, on a table of marble, recline the statue of the Earl, in his coronet, clad in armour, covered with a mantle, and that of his Countess LADY LETITIA, daughter of SIR FRANCIS KNOLLES, in her coronet and mantle of ermine. The hands of both are elevated. These statues are finely sculptured; but the appearance of the whole monument is ostentatiously massy, without elegance of design, or proportion of parts.

WITHIN the arch, are sixteen flags, charged with as many armorial bearings. On the key stone, appears a cinque foil Erm.; in the spandrils of the arch, and under each pair of pillars, the arms of Dudley impaling Knolles. In front of the tomb, the arms of Dudley again appear in quarterings. The atchievement over the entablature, pre

Monument of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

sents the arms of Dudley with quarterings impaling Knolles, encircled by the garter, supported by two lions rampant, and surmounted by a crest, the bear and ragged staff, between two other crests, and a lion's head issuing from a helmet. Over these arms, is a cinque foil Erm. and above all, the bear and ragged staff.

UNDER the arch of this grand monument, is placed a Latin inscription, which proclaims the honors bestowed, with profusion, but without discernment, upon the royal favorite, who owed his fortune solely to his personal attractions, for of moral worth or intellectual ability, he had none. Respecting his two great military employments, here so pompously set forth, prudence might have recommended silence: since, on one occasion, he acquired no glory, as he had no opportunity; and, on the other, the opportunity he had, he lost, and returned home, covered with deep and deserved disgrace. That he should be celebrated, even on a tomb, for conjugal affection and fidelity, must be thought still more remarkable by those who recollect that, according to every appearance of probability, he poisoned his first wife; disowned his second; dishonored his third, before he married her; and, in order to marry her, murdered her former husband. To all this it may be added, that his only surviving son, an infant, was a natural child, by LADY SHEFfield. If his widowed countess did really mourn, as she here affects, it is believed that into no other eye but her's, and perhaps that of his infatuated Queen, did a single tear stray, when Sept. 4, 1588, he ended a life-of which the external splendor, and even the affected piety, and ostentatious charity, in vain, endeavours to conceal or soften the black enormity of its guilt and shame.