Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/259

 10 s. x. SEPT. 12, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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LONDON STATUES AND MEMORIALS. (10 S. ix. 1, 102, 282, 363, 481 ; x. 122.)

ALL those who take an interest in matters relating to London will rejoice at the efforts made by MB. PAGE to supply ma- terials for a complete list of its statues and memorials, and a very good start he has made. It is, of course, open to both additions and amendments, but so paijis- taking have been his notes that very few will require to be commented on.

23. Statue of Queen Anne, opposite the west front of St. Paul's Cathedral. The replica of Francis Bird's original statue is the work of Richard Belt, a Westminster man, and a very good piece of work it is reckoned. In St. Margaret's Church, West- minster, there is a bust of Canon Conway, and in the church of St. John the Evangelist a monumental tablet, having a low relief portrait, to the memory of Archdeacon Jennings, both being from the studio of this then promising young sculptor, who, however, soon afterwards fell under a cloud.

30. Temple Bar Memorial, Fleet Street. It may be well to note that on the sides of the pedestal are statues of the late Queen, and of the present King when Prince of Wales.

57. Statue of Prince Albert, Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington. Now that the Horticultural Gardens have been done away with, this statue looks entirely out of place, and a more fitting locality should be found for it, for as a work of art it always seemed to take a higher place among the statues of London than a great many of them are considered to deserve.

69. Statue of the Duke of Kent, Portland Place. There is some talk of this statue being removed elsewhere, by sanction of His Majesty, as the site is the one selected as suitable for the national memorial to Shakspeare, should it take the form of a statue with architectural adjuncts ; but as yet nothing has been definitely decided upon the subject.

MB. PAGE calls attention to the article in The Sunday Strand for March on ' Statues to Famous Ministers,' in which it is stated that Bishop Middleton is the " only minister who has a statue " in St. Paul's. This is incorrect, for not only is there one to Bishop Heber, as MB. PAGE says (10 S. ix. 364), but in the same aisle the south-east there are three altar-tombs, having recum- bent effigies, in memory of Dean Milman

and Bishops Blomfield and Jackson, and also the fine, but decidedly monkish-looking bronze statue to Bishop Mandell Creighton, the historian Bishop of London, the work of Mr. Hamo Thorny croft, R.A. There may be others, but these I saw only a few weeks ago. If MB. PAGE would like the inscription on Bishop Heber' s statue, I will send it to him.

72. Statue of Queen Anne, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster. An old Westminster resident, Mr. William Bardwell, architect and antiquary, now dead many years, told me that he always believed this statue to have been the work of Francis Bird, but there is now no way of finding out the reasons upon which his ideas were based. As to its merits there has always been con- siderable diversity of opinion ; it has been much knocked about and weather-worn, and frequently, but at long intervals, repaired. It would appear to be not by any means the worst of our statues.

74. Crimean Memorial, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster. This is hardly the correct designation for this column. It commemo- rates the scholars of Westminster School who perished " in the Crimea and India, 1855-1859," as the inscription on the north front sets forth.

77a. Statue of George Canning. With reference to this statue, I rather fancy that it never stood in Palace Yard. Before Parliament Square was made to look decent and laid out in its present form, the statue stood, I remember, in St. Margaret's Street, just about where the pathway now crosses the square, facing Palace Yard.

776. Statue of Sir Robert Peel. I shall be glad if MB. PAGE will kindly state where- abouts " near the Abbey " this statue was first put up.

77c. Statue of Lord Palmerston. This statue was first erected between the gates at the angle of Palace Yard facing Parlia- ment Street, where it was placed on a very low pedestal, for a short time before being removed to its present position.

8 la. Statue of Isambard K. Brunei. With reference to the date of its erection, given as " a few years " after 1859, I think, although I cannot vouch that I am right, that this statue was not placed here until the District Railway had been opened some time, which, it seems to me, did not take place until nearly ten years afterwards.

816. Statue of John Stuart Mill. With reference to this statue, I strongly incline to the opinion that it was not erected in bis lifetime, as the dates given imply.