Identifier: rollcallofwestmi00smit (find matches)
Title: The roll-call of Westminster Abbey
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Smith, A. Murray, Mrs
Subjects: Westminster Abbey
Publisher: London : Smith, Elder, & Co.
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

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n servicewas held, while a hundred wax tapers were lit upon thehearse and the altar, which used to stand at the east end ofthe tomb within the grille. Henry had left instructionswith regard to every detail of his tomb, and the grille seemsto have been begun before his death, but the design wasaltered from Gothic to Classic under the talented superin-tendence of the great Italian sculptor, Torrigiano, to whomwe owe the wonderfully modelled effigies, the figures oflittle angels, the reliefs of saints, and in fact all the decora-tion on the monument. That the chapel was onlycompleted as far as the vaulting and the scaffolding forthe roof may account for the long delay (four years) beforethe fine part of the work was actually begun, though it isprobable that the black marble foundation of the sepulchrehad been put in hand before. In any case the wholemonument, and that of the Kings mother in the south aisle, 1 Hitherto the bodies of the sovereigns had been buried above groundin the tombs.
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ROYAL BENEFACTORS 81 which is by the same hand, were apparently completed by1518, when Torrigiano undertook to do the high altar.The groups of twelve saints in copper and gilt around thetomb were specially provided for by Henrys own directions,and represent his patrons or guardians; amongst them arethe Confessor, and both the St. Johns, as well as the Virginand St. Anne. On the grate or closure which protectsthem from injury, and is the work of English hands, aresome of the royal badges, including the Tudor rose, thegreyhound of the Nevilles, and the Welsh dragon ; uponthe gates of the chapel will be found the others, such asthe portcullis, and Lady Margarets root of daisies. Theportrait effigy, which is seen best in the accompanyingphotograph, must have been, from contemporary accounts,a life-like image of the Solomon of England. The stern,ascetic lines of his features resemble those of his mother,whose beautiful figure, the face and hands wrinkled andseamed with the marks of old age

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