Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/276

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It' a faithful discharge of duty, and the most honest, diligent, and attached conduct, for a long course of years, ever claims the expression of gratitude, it is due to the memory of John Bagley, who departed this life on the 15th day of September 1792, aged 65 years, and lies interred near this place.

" As a memorial of his regard for an excellent servant, and a worthy man, whose loss he much laments, this stone was erected by George Earl of Warwick, l/f)3."

But the lady's chapel, the northern chapel, and the choir, far eclipse the other part of the fabric in the splendour of their monuments, some of which afford the finest examples in the kingdom of se- pulchral sculpture. The first of these, built at a time when popular superstition attached the idea of miraculous power to the relics of martyrs and the figures of saints, displays, in its fillagreed niches and exquisitely-worked shrines (the rich depositories of their wonder-working trumpery) the cost and labour that were exhausted on their account. We view with wonder the nicety and variety of these c biborate ornaments, particularly on observing that they are wrought out of the common sand-stone of the neighbourhood. But our attention was soon directed from these decorations to another speci- of ancient art, in the marble tomb of Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, the most splendid table monument in this kingdom. He was the

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