n
of Charles II. was by no means his sole achievement, and he had, although
a landsman and a soldier by training, previously distinguished himself on
the sea in company with Admiral Blake, and later on he co-operated with
his former foe, Prince Rupert, in many an action with the Dutch fleet.
He died standing upright in his tent, refusing to be conquered even by
death itself, and was buried with military honours. Charles II., who
hated funerals and rarely attended one, walked behind the bier as chief
mourner. Upon the step below are carved the names of Charles, of his
nieces, Mary and Anne, and of their respective husbands. Their wax
effigies, now in the Islip Chapel, used to stand here, and were the only
monuments raised to the Stuart sovereigns--a fact which called forth much
jesting comment from their political opponents. From this small chapel
we pass to the one opposite, crossing once more the top of the steps. At
the entrance is a stone which immediately arrests attention, for upon it
is the touching epitaph dedicated by his admirer Tickell to the memory of
Joseph Addison. We have seen Addison's statue {102} in Poets' Corner,
where it was ultimately placed, after a proposal to put it up beside St.
Edward's shrine had met with the contumely it deserved. Here the great
master of English prose "rests in peace," with his friend James Craggs,
whose memorial we have already pointed out at the entrance to the nave.
Close to the grave is the mural monument of his "loved Montagu," the
first Earl of Halifax, who was, like Sheffield, a patron of literature
and literary men. Addison's memory must ever be dear to all who love the
Abbey, for the sake of his reflections upon the church and its mighty
dead; in connection notably with his creation of that genial knight, Sir
Roger de Coverley. Buried beside Charles Montagu is his great-nephew,
George Montagu Dunk, Earl of Halifax, who is chiefly remembered nowadays
as the founder of the Colony of Nova Scotia; the capital, Halifax, was
called after him. His monument is in the north transept. Beneath our
feet, in General Monck's vault, lies their collateral ancestor, Admiral
Edward Montagu, who was created Earl of Sandwich by Charles II. when
Monck was made Duke of Albemarle, as a reward to the two Generals for
their share in promoting the Restoration. Sandwich's tragic end and the
battle {103} of Sole Bay are referred to on a double tablet, which we
passed near the entrance