Death's doings; consisting of numerous original compositions, in prose and verse, the friendly contributions of various writers; principally intended as illustrations of twenty four plates, designed and etched by R. Dagley / [Richard Dagley].

  • Dagley, Richard, -1841
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Death's doings; consisting of numerous original compositions, in prose and verse, the friendly contributions of various writers; principally intended as illustrations of twenty four plates, designed and etched by R. Dagley / [Richard Dagley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the Abbey of Westminster, it is impossible not greatly to regret, that from the inspection of these monumental remains—these efforts of sculptured art, past and present, the public should be barred, without the payment of an admission-fee; a regula- tion which, while it debases the character of a na- tional exhibition, excludes the generality of the people, and defeats every legitimate purpose for which these memorials of the great and good were erected. An additional evil is, that the visitor is hurried over a space and spectacle whose very essence is destroyed if not traversed and seen with freedom, quiet, and calm contemplation. Under the present regulations of abbey economy, the charm is almost dissolved which would otherwise preserve the memory of those heroic achievements of our fleets and armies,—those labours of the statesman and the legislator, of the man of science and the poet, all of rank and of literature, to which these testimonials of a nation’s gratitude have been raised, by public or private expense. It is not only interring the body, but burying the monument too; and the lament has been hardly more for the departed, than for the labours of art. c