blue depths of the misty dome the London fog
loves to linger, and hides the remains of some feeble frescoes by
Thornhill, Hogarth's father-in-law. In St. Paul's, as in St. Peter's, the
statues on the monuments destroy the natural proportion of the arches by
their monstrous size, but they have seldom any beauty or grace to excuse
them. The week-day services are thinly attended, and, from the nave, it
seems as if the knot of worshipers near the choir were lost in the
immensity, and the peals of the organ and the voices of the choristers
were vibrating through an arcaded solitude....

The most interesting portion of the church is the Crypt, where, at the
eastern extremity, are gathered nearly all the remains of the tombs which
were saved from the old St. Paul's. Here repose the head and half the body
of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1579), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the reign
of Elizabeth, and father of Francis, Lord Bacon. Other fragments represent
William Cokain, 1626; William Hewit, 1597; and John Wolley and his wife,
1595. There are tablets to "Sir Simon Baskerville the rich," physician to
James I. and Charles I., 1641; and to Brian, Bishop of Chester, 1661. The
tomb of John Martin, bookseller, and his wife, 1680, was probably the
first monument erected in the crypt of new St. Paul's....

In the Crypt, not far from the old St. Paul's tombs, the revered Dean
Milman, the great historian of the church (best known, perhaps, by his
"History of the Jews," his "History of Latin Christianity," and his
contributions to "Heber's Hymns"), is now buried under a simple tomb
ornamented with a raised cross. In a recess on the south is the slab of
Sir Christopher Wren, and near him, in other chapels, Robert Mylne, the
architect of old Blackfriars Bridge, and John Rennie, the architect of
Waterloo Bridge. Beneath the pavement lies Sir Joshua Reynolds (1742), who
had an almost royal funeral in St. Paul's, dukes and marquises contending
for the honor of being his pallbearers. Around him are buried his
disciples and followers--Lawrence (1830), Barry (1806), Opie (1807), West
(1820), Fuseli (1825); but the most remarkable grave is that of William
Maillord Turner, whose dying request was that he might be buried as near
as possible to Sir Joshua.

Where the heavy pillars and arches gather thick beneath the dome, in spite
of his memorable words at the battle of the Nile--"Victory or Westminster
Abbey"--is the grave of Lord Nelson. Followed to t