"FULL UP" AT ST PAUL'S

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1957, 14 January 1914, Page 5

"FULL UP" AT ST PAUL'S

A CENTURY OF MONUMENTS.

HOW TO HONOUR BRITAIN'S GREAT DEAD? The Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral have issued a statement that no inpro .memorials of the dead can bo placed on tho main floor of tbo cathedral without encroaching on the congregational space or impairing the architectural effect of tho interior. They add that they do'not wish, under those circumstances, to receive further applications for such statues or monuments. This pronouncement could have been foreseen; it has matured visibly; yet it is not the less startling in its definite ultorance. Ifc is another grave reminder, remarks tho "Observer/ , that the nation, and, in a senso, tho Empire, is no longer able to raiso memorials to its illustrious dead in those places which time and custom have consecrated and rendered supremely significant. "Westminster Abbey is full. It was only by good fortune, and the actual displacement of an existing monument, that room waa found tivo years ago for the memorial to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Now we-are apprised that the floor space of St. Paul's can accommodate no new sculpture. Tho Crypt, of course, remains, but the burial of a great man in tho Crypt without a corresponding memorial on the floor above cannot be considered adequate. The new edict, unwelcome in itself, may have the effect of raising once more a question which has been too long shelved. Meanwhile it is interesting to not< that tho filling up of tho interior o] St. Paul's Cathedral with monument! has taken' little more than a century Although the Cathedral was completed in 1710, when Wren's son, in tho presence of his aged father, laid the lasf stone- on the summit of the lantern, it was not for more than eight decades that any monument was admitted to the now cathedral. ■It is curious, too, that the first monuments to bo placed in a church which has become associated with military and naval heroes were all raised to men of other types. First Memorial. In 1786 it was proposed to erect a statuo to John Howard, the prison philanthropist, who was then alive. Ho deprecated the idea, and another uso was made of the funds. But his death occurred in 1790, and then the original idea of a statue was revived. This was intended to be, placed in some- out-door position, and various sites were under consideration when the Kov. John Pridden, ono of tho minor canons of St. Paul's, made tho bold suggestion that the Dean and Chapter should be asked to give a site wider the domo of tho Cathedral. Happily, their consent was given, and this was the moro remarkable in that Howard was a Dissenter. A new era in tho.history of St. Paul's and of national sepulture was inaugurated. It happened,, also, that Dr. Johnson had been dead only fiye or six years, and that the question ol a worthy memorial to him was etill under consideration. It was at first proposed to place his statue in Westminster Abbey. But tlie result of much debato was that tho statues of Howard and Johnson were allotted positions under two of tho great corner piers of St. Paul's dome, and that the commissions to execute them were given to John Bacon, R.A. Both statues were shown for the first time in the Cathedral on February 23, 171)6.

The figure of Howard, with the key

of liberation in his hand nnd'tlic prison 1 - manacles under his loo!., speaks i'nr itself, but the gladiatorlike stutiio of Dγ; Johnson has always been..criticised.'. Those who arc citrhus sboiit' iincbnjsec itooption may iind his own explanation of his design for Johnson's .statuo'.'.in'v the "Gentleman's Magazine" pi'.March; , ; 1796. . . ;,,^.^?.; > : sf; Reynolds and Jonss. -i-iX^S While Bacon was moulding-.these , statues Sir Joshua Reynolds away. It was obvious that four'statues? could stand under the dome in ; sym- , ■metrical relation to each .oilier/ arid the: claim of Reynolds to one 'or these positions was seen. . He had loved tno Cathedral, and was Presi-? dent of Royal Academy --y.wheiv tliat body made their vain offpr to.de-i corate it* with-paintings. Ho had sug--gested to Burke ths gilding of Wren's capitals and other parts pi tho archi-. teoture, and liad rejoiced"when, by tho.. admission of Howard's statue, he fore- :: saw that St. Paul's would become "the' British Temple of Fame." ■"-V■:- : .- Yet this was not the next monument, to bo erected. Sir William Jones died In 1704, and tho East India Company, who wero at nil times lavish and punctual in erecting memorials to tho makers of India, commissioned Bacon to carve a statue for the third great position. This was soon erected. Flaxman's statue of Sir Joshua, on tho other hand, was long delayed, and was only finished and erected m 1813. These four statues wero the nucleus of tho eighty or more monuments and mural tablets which are now said to".make up the-complement of memorials on tho ground floor of St. Paul's Cathedral. .' ■;. ; £Jj; Craves, but not Monuments.. ?! The public must not, however, conftise the question of the erection of monuments with that of burials, which i have always been in the crypt of tho. Cathedral. There is still room, as Canon Alexander pointed out yosterda.r, j for many more remains to bo interred, although the "Painters' Corner" is now practically filled and may have to : he .extended in- the crypt. As to future monuments Canon Alexander explained that these would take tho form of memorial'windows or mural tablets, for which there is still a limited amount of space; but no further encroachments could bt> made on tlio floor of the Cathedral. The position is similar at Westminster Abbey, whero_ there is ample accommodation still left in the navo for interments, but lie room for.: .-. further memorials. ... ■-...■•'■■' '""-.