ho
with Goldsmith had wandered through the Abbey, wondering if one day
their names might not be recorded there, found a grave in Westminster,
and, thanks to Reynolds, the first place of honour. Sir Joshua himself,
as one of our greatest painters, took the third place, that Hogarth
should have occupied; and the fourth was awarded to that great Oriental
scholar, Sir William Jones. The clerical opposition was now broken
through, for the world felt that the Abbey was full enough, and that St.
Paul's required adorning.

Henceforward St. Paul's was chiefly set apart for naval and military
heroes whom the city could best appreciate, while the poets, great
writers, and statesmen were honoured in the Abbey, and laid among the
old historic dead. From the beginning our sculptors resorted to pagan
emblems and pagan allegorical figures; the result is that St. Paul's
resembles a Pantheon of the Lower Empire, and is a hospital of
third-rate art. The first naval conqueror so honoured was Rodney; Rossi
received L6,000 for his cold and clumsy design; Lord Howe's statue
followed; and next that of Lord Duncan, the hero of Camperdown. It is a
simple statue by Westmacott, with a seaman and his wife and child on the
pedestal. For Earl St. Vincent, Bailey produced a colossal statue and
the usual scribbling, History and a trumpeting Victory.

Then came Nelson's brothers in arms--men of lesser mark; but the nation
was grateful, and the Government was anxious to justify its wars by its
victories. St. Paul's was growing less particular, and now opened its
arms to the best men it could get. Many of Nelson's captains preceded
him on the red road to death--Westcott, who fell at Aboukir; Mosse and
Riou, who fell before Copenhagen (a far from stainless victory). Riou
was the brave man whom Campbell immortalised in his fiery "Battle of the
Baltic." Riou lies

"Full many a fathom deep,
By thy wild and stormy steep,
Elsinore."

Then at last, in 1806, came a hero worthy, indeed, of such a
cathedral--Nelson himself. At what a moment had Nelson expired! At the
close of a victory that had annihilated the fleets of France and Spain,
and secured to Britain the empire of the seas. The whole nation that day
shed tears of "pride and of sorrow." The Prince of Wales and all his
brothers led the procession of nearly 8,000 soldiers, and the chief
mourner was Admiral Parker (the Mutiny of the Nore Parker). Nelson's
coffin was f