COMMEMORATING GREAT MEN

Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 8

COMMEMORATING GREAT MEN

The Westminster Abbey problem will be keenly discussed for some time to como until definite action is taken on tho report of the. recent Commission. The placing of tho late Mr Thomas Hardy’s ashes in tho Abbey lends interest to a suggestion by the ‘ Yorkshire Post’ in a leading article as follows :

“ Before wo resign ourselves to controversy for and against extending the Abbey, it is surely worth while to inquire whether a hall of fame really is tho onlj alternative site than can be suggested. “The main objects of preserving a great man’s burial place as a national monument presumably are partly to pay him deserved honor and partly to keen his memory alive as a national inspiration. Both these objects, one may surely foci, are best served if be can be given for bis memorial, not simply a formal monument, but a shrine vitally associated with his life and with his work. “ For some great men such a shrine may very fittingly be set up in AVestminster Abbey, but there are many other famous Englishmen—perhaps, indeed, a majority—who could far more appropriately he commemorated in the country localities where, by family tradition or personal choice, they bad made their homes. « “There must bo very many men interred in magnificent sepulchres in capital cities who, should they return as wandering shades to earth, would be found nowhere near • their graves, but in some country village where their hearts are buried. Some, of course, already possess such truly native memorials. Cecil Rhodes chose to bo buried on the summit of the Matoppos Hills, and the appropriateness of his choice has ’■.ever been questioned. “ Nor is anyone likely to argue that Shakespeare should he buried anywhere but at Stratford, or Gray anywhere but in tho churchyard of his elegy, Stokes Poges. Even Robert Louis Stevenson’s distant tomb at Vailraa is accepted as natural and fitting enough. But, though such local memorials ns those are generally approved, no attempt seems ever to have been made to inaugurate a definite policy of commemorating great men on the local principle. Mnv not the moment now have come to consider such a policy very seriously? “in the past it might have been argued that local memorials on account of their probable inaccessibility would be neither adequately preserved nor regularly visited. The growth of modern communication has destroyed this argument, as can be seen readily enough from the steady stream of visitors to Stoke Poges. Before establishing a local memorial it would, of course, be cpiite essential to ensure proper arrangements for its maintenance, but this surely should not be very difficult. ■

“ Far the beat method would bo to place all such memorials under the direct supervision .of the National Trust, whose work for Gray’s churchyard has been carried out with such admirable taste and success. Tho choice of locality might sometimes be a delicate task, but the officials would at least be saved the uncomfortable necessity of justifying an Abbey memorial for a man who would never have chosen such a resting place for himself. It would surelj’j for instance, be purely ironical to insist on the Abbey as a moro suitable resting place for Thomas Hardy than his beloved Wessex. . . .

“Tho main point we would make, however, is that the prevailing idea of the Abbey as the only fit resting place for famous Englishmen should be definitely abandoned.”