Between the two black tombs was to
rise a high basement, like a sepulchre, surmounted by a statue of the
king on horseback, in armour--both figures to be "of the whole stature
of a goodly man and a large horse." Over this statue was to be a
canopy, like a triumphal arch, of white marble, garnished with oriental
stones of divers colours, with the history of Saint John the Baptist
wrought in gilt brass upon it, with a crowning group of the Father
holding the soul of the king in his right hand and the soul of the queen
in his left, and blessing them. The height of the monument was to be
twenty-eight feet.
The number of statues was to be one hundred and thirty-four, with forty-
four bas-reliefs. It would be matter of infinite regret that this great
design was never executed, if its destruction by the Parliamentary
plunderers would not in that case have been also matter of certainty.
Charles the First intended to fit up this structure as a royal mausoleum,
but was diverted from the plan by the outbreak of the civil war. It was
afterwards used as a chapel by James the Second, and mass was
publicly performed in it. The ceiling was painted by Verrio, and the
walls highly ornamented; but the decorations were greatly injured by
the fury of an anti-Catholic mob, who assailed the building, and
destroyed its windows, on the occasion of a banquet given to the
Pope's nuncio by the king.
Pages:
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281