the pomp of a public funeral, and deposited in the crypt close by the coffin of Lord Nelson. Thus the friends who had been always united in life, remain also undivided in death. Having no son, Lord Collingwood's title became extinguished with his life. He was a man naturally diffident and unassuming, and was on that account, by superficial judges, often held to possess inferior merit. It is needless to remark that this was a false estimate; he despised all ostentation, and preserved, on every occasion, a most peculiar simplicity in his manners. His worth, however, was great, and his bravery and skill fully equal to the long line of heroes whom he succeeded; and it is certain, that while the glories of naval warfare shall continue to engage the admiration of nations, his name will be preserved with respect. Few officers ever served their country for a longer run of years, and perhaps not one with such faithful continuity. During the last seventeen years of his life he was only spared one visit to his family, and that did not continue for a clear twelvemonth. He used to observe that he was scarcely known to his own children: but he never complained; on the contrary, it was a frequent declaration with him, that while health and strength to serve his country remained to him, he considered that health and strength his country's due: adding, upon every occasion, that if he could but serve it as successfully for the future as for the past he had faithfully, his wife and children could never want friends. Lord Collingwood was of a middling stature, but extremely thin; his general habits were remarkably regular and temperate; he ate with an appetite, drank moderately at dinner, but upon no other occasion indulged either in wine or spirits. He made it a rule in tempestuous weather, or when upon any hostile emergency, to sleep upon a sofa, with a flannel dressing-gown on instead of his uniform coat. Bodily exposure, cold, rain, or illness, were things he never heeded, and consequently seldom suffered from. He would appear on deck without a hat, his thin grey hair floating in the wind, while heavy torrents poured down through the shrouds; and thus take his observations, and issue his commands with perfect composure. To this contempt of personal comfort, however, it must be added with regret, that his country owed her privation of those services which his age seemed likely to leave available for many more years. GREAT Jonson did by strength of judgment please, But both to CONGREVE justly shall submit, One matched in judgment, both o'ermatched in wit. DRYDEN. In that extremity of the south aisle of Westminster Abbey which adjoins the principal entrance, is the monument of William Congreve it is wrought in the finest marble the edifice contains, and consists of a good half-body profile bust, in relief, resting on a pedestal, which is enriched with dramatic and poetical emblems. The inscription runs thus :- Mr. William Congreve died Jan. ye 19th, 1728, aged 56, and was buried near this place; to whose most valueable memory this monument is sett up by HENRIETTA, Dutchess of MARLBOROUGH, as a mark how dearly she remembers the happiness she enjoyed in the sincere friendshipp of so worthy and honest a man, whose virtue, candour, and witt gained him the love and esteem of the present age, and whose writings will be the admiration of the future.* Contiguous is a fine statue, leaning on an urn, erected to the memory of a contemporary, James Craggs, who, from a shoemaker's son, rose to be Secretary of State, and the friend of Pope. He was nominated Secretary at War in April, 1717, and admitted into the Privy Council, and made Secre The time of Congreve's birth is not precisely known, and the place of it is disputed. Upon his own assertion, which, it is to be observed, has been severely questioned, he was born in the year 1672, at Bardsa, near Leeds, in Yorkshire. His family belonged to Staffordshire, and was of such great antiquity as to be able to trace a descent beyond the Norman conquest. Their seats were at Congreve and Stratton, and their estates, though primitively numerous and valuable, had been considerably diminished before the time of the poet. His father was an officer, quartered in Ireland, about the period of his birth, where he was also entrusted with the agency of the Earl of Burlington's estates, upon which, according to the general impression of contem tary of State during the month of March in the succeeding year. Upon the urn is a Latin inscription, in gilt capitals, to the following effect :-' JAMES CRAGGS, Secretary and Privy Counsellor Alike the love and delight of his Prince and the People, xxxv years, Alas, how few! He died February the xiv. MDCCXX. His sorrowful sisters, A. Knight, E, Eliot, M. Collins, placed this. Pope's Epitaph is engraved upon the pedestal below. Statesman! yet friend to truth, of soul sincere, * JACOBUS CRAGGS, Et Consiliis Sanctioribus; Principis pariter ac populi amor et delicia, Annos, heu paucos! xxxv Ob. Feb. xiv. MDCCXX. Sorores moerentes P A. Knight. E. Eliot. M. Collins. |