BURIAL OF GREAT MEN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5233, 1 February 1928, Page 3

BURIAL OF GREAT MEN.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY PROBLEM

SUGGESTED HALL OF FAME.

The Westminster Abbey problem will be kqenly discussed for some time to come until definite action is taken on the report of the rqcent Commission. The placing of the late Mr Thomas Hardy’s ashes in the Abbey lends interest to a suggestion by the “ Yorkshire Post ” in a leading article as follows :— “ Before we resign ourselves to controversy for and against exteilding bhe Abbey, .it- is surely worth, while to inquire whether a hall of fame really is the only alternative site than can be suggested. ‘ The main objects of preserving a great man’s burial place as a national monument presumably are partly tp pay him deserved honour and partly to keep his memory live as a national inspiration. Both these objects, one may surely feel, are best served if he can be given , for his memorial, not simply a formal monument but a shrine vitally associated with his life and with his work.

“For some greiat men such a shrine may very fittingly be set up in Westminster Abbey, but there are many other famous Englishmen—perhaps, indeed, a majority—who could far more appropriately be commemorated in the. country localities ■,where, by family tradition or personal choice, they had made their homes.

“There must be very many men intterred. an magnificent sepulchres in 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 sdeh truly native memorials. Cecil Rhodes chose to be buried on the summit of the Matoppos Hills, and the appropriateness of his choicq has never been questioned..

“Nor is anyone likely to argue that Shakespeare should be buried anywhere but at Stratford or Gray anywhere but in the churchyard of his elegy, Stokes Poges. EVen Robert Louis Stevenson’s distant tomb at Vailima is accepted as natural and fitting enough. But though sueb. local memorials as these are generally approved, nP attempt seems ever to have, been made to augurate a definite policy of, commemorating great -men on t'he local principle. May not the moment now hdve 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; ithe-growth of modern communication has destroyed this argument, as can be seen readily enpugh from the steady stream of visitors to Stoke Poges. Before establishing a local memorial it ,would, of course, be quite essential to ensure proper arrangements f.or its maintenance but . this surely should not’be very difficult. “Far the best method would be to place all such memorials under the direct supervision: of the National Trust, wihosq work for Gray’s churchyard has been carried out with such admirable taste and success. The 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 ftsting-place for himself. It would surely, for instance; be purely ironical to insist on the Abbey as a more suitable resting place for Thomas Hardy than, his beloved Wessex. ... “The main point we would make, however, is that the prevailing idea of the Abbey as the only fit restingplace for famous Englishmen should be definitely abandoned.”