MONUMENTS

And Genii

OF

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL,

AND OF

WESTMINSTER ABBEY;

WITH

Historical Sketches and Descriptions

OF

LONDON

PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET-STREET,

DAVID GARRICK.

The monument of this great actor is placed high in an arch of the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. He appears advancing between statues in Tragedy' and Comedy, emblematically relieved, and in the act of throwing aside a curtain which concealed a medallion of Shakspeare, affixed to a back ground of dove-coloured marble. By these circumstances it is evidently designed to impress upon the spectator that he was principally distinguished by his illustrations of Shakspeare, and stood equally eminent in the two leading departments of the drama. To state that nature and allegory are well combined in the idea, is to pay a compliment rarely merited : it is a perspicuous performance, neatly finished, and theatrically effective. The inscrip. tions are these :

To
The Memory of

DAVID GARRICK,
Who died in the year 1779,

At the age of 63.

To paint fair Nature by Divine command,
Her magic pencil in his glowing hand,
A Shakspeare rose-then, to expand his fame
Wide o'er this breathing world,' a Garrick came.
Though sunk in death the forms the poet drew,
The actor's genius bade them breathe anew;
Though, like the bard himself, in night they lay,
Immortal Garrick called them back to day: