Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/417

 9* s. VL NOV. 3, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 343 three or four of widely different persons must suffice for the present. Of the many tombs and tombstones there is now only one left, an altar tomb, just within the railing close bv the tower, the inscription not hard to read"by the passers-by. It records that "Here lyeth the Body of I Alexander Davis] of Ehury in the County of Middlesex, Kwjuire I who dyed July 2™1 Anno Domini 1665 | /twtis •a» 30 | Here also lyeth I Mary Tregomvell I wife first of y« said Alexander Davis | afterwards of John Tregonwell of Dorset, Esq. I and Daughter of Richard Dukeson, D.D. 1 She was a Lady of Exceptional Piety and Charity I and dyed uni- versally Lamented | on the eleventh day of July 1717 1 aged 75 years." From the inscription, probably, the casual reader will not gain much knowledge of the deceased. Those better informed will know that it was through this individual that the almost boundless wealth of the ducal house of Westminster came into the Grosvenor family. Davis was one of the very earliest victims of the Plague, and was buried here on the day following his death, leaving a daughter but a few months old, named Mary, after her mother. The romance of Ebury is too long to be talked about here, and is rather beside our purpose at the present time. We find that "a week after the death of Alexander Davies his young widow took out letters of administration and became the sole guardian of the child.' When the latter was about eleven years ol Xher approaching marriage was talked ut, and came off before the end of the year, "her husband being Sir Thomas Grosvenor, a voung baronet of Cheshke, they being married at the Church of St. Clement's Danes, the bride groom's age being just twenty. In 1688 she became the mother of two sons only one, however, was born alive; and ii or about 1700 Lady Grosvenor " had been the mother of eight children, of whoir onlv four survived, and in this year her husbanc died aged forty-four, she being but thirty-five, an- a confirmed and hopeless lunatic. She was tenderly looked after in her mis fortune by the Grosvenor family until he death in 1730. Another interment took place here ot a man widely respected, of whom generations o members of the dramatic profession canno but think with emotion. Thomas Hull "a benevolent and respected play actor, as my old friend Henry Poole describe him lies buried here: and again, to quofc him we are told that "his gravestone which I watched for many years, was nea the railing on the north side of the Abbe reen, and near the entrance to the north x>rch." It may be perhaps allowable, even in iew of the very precise notice of him and his work in the ' D.N.B.,' to give a few particu- ars about him, for, be it said with all regret, he monumental work alluded to is not to bo ound or easily get-at-able everywhere. This i-t or and dramatist, the son of an apothecary, was born in the Strand in 1728, and was a cholar at the Charterhouse, and ultimately gravitated to the stage, his first recorded ippearance being on 5 October, 1759, at Jovent Garden Theatre, where he continued or the extraordinary period of forty-eight •ears, his biographer stating that "it was lis pride that, during his long connection with Covent Garden, he never missed his >art but once, when he was confined to his red by a violent fever." His name last appeared on the bills on 28 December, 1807, when he played the Uncle in ' George Barn- well.' He died on 22 April, 1808, at his house near Dean's Yard, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Margaret's, Westminster. He is stated to have been the author of nine- teen plays, oratorios, and other dramatic works, and in addition one or two novels. But his chief claim upon posterity is that, seeing so many bad cases of distress in the profession of which he was both a good and useful member—notably the sad case of Mrs. Hamilton—he "called the actors together, and the Theatrical Fund was established." Actors big and little, great and small, down on your Knees, and bless the memory of Thomas Hull ! Again, to quote from the notes of Mr. Poole:— " My father knew him and held him in great esteem, and made me note the stone and its inscrip- tion. Mr. Hull was in almost constant demand by the managers of theatres as the ' gentleman' of the piece, but he rarely undertook great characters. He was wealthy ana benevolent to his sometimes needy brethren, and started the Theatrical Fund, that at first bore his name. The eulogy on his gravestone was penned, I think, by Beard, a literary associate. 1 quote from memory :— Hull, long respected in the scenic art. On this life's stage sustain'd a gen'rous part, And some memorial of esteem to show For his loved art, and shelter age from woe, Founded that noble fund which guards his name, Embalm'd by Gratitude, enshrined by Fame." It would only be a fitting action on the part of the members of that great and noblo profession for which Hull did so much, if they placed a small memorial of him in the church in the burying ground of which he has slept for ninety-two years. Thirtj years afterwards there were laid to rest in this churchyard the mortal re- mains of one who by her musical talents