table impulses of his soul, scorning the "world's dread laugh," and determining that it is more glorious to make the widow's heart leap for joy than to be sheltered beneath the golden palaces of luxury for ever! Where is the monument that should blazon forth the name of this man! Alas! "For him they raise not the recording stone!" and to the shame of humanity be it said, nought telleth of the glorious beneficence of Humphrey Chetham, save only the never-dying recollection which is transmitted through the hearts of every generation! Leaving this chapel, we notice in the space behind the choir, and near to the once celebrated window, a tablet to the memory of the Rev. Adam Banks, formerly Fellow of the Church, who died in 1750; and another to the Rev. George Ogden, who was also Fellow of the Church, and died in 1706. Against one of the pillars is likewise an inscription to the children of James and Margaret Lightbourne, of Manchester. Passing down the south aisle, in which is a tablet intimating that in 1700 one “ Nathaniel Edmondson, a woollen-draper, ordered the marble pavement in the altar to be laid down at his own expense," we come to the Chapter-house, over the door-way of which is that beautiful monument erected by the pupils of the Rev. Charles Lawson to the memory of their truly beloved instructor; he died in 1807, having been fifty-eight years Head Master of the Grammar School. Near to this again is one to Thomas Ogden, of Manchester, who died in 1766; and in the immediate vicinity one to Sarah, the wife of the Rev. Thomas Moss, who died in child-bed, in 1752, aged twenty-seven years; and another to Susannah Georgiana Mary, who died in 1790. Here is also an excellent piece of sculpture to the memory of Frances Hall, of Manchester, who died June 4th., 1828, aged eighty-four, and of whom whilst upon earth, it might truly be said that "whatever her hands found to do she did it with all her might." She was the last of an ancient family,* and at her death left to four charitable institutions the sum of forty thousand pounds. In Trafford's Chapel, which is on the south side of the nave, and which is now entirely filled with pews, there is a beautiful monument to the memories of Lieut. Edmund Trafford, of the First Royal Dragoons, and of Mrs. Elizabeth Trafford; both of whom died in 1813. There is also a very handsome one to Dauntsey Hulme, Esq., of Manchester, who died April 27th., 1828. He was a great benefactor to the town, and bequeathed a considerable sum of money to the Royal Infirmary, at the request of the Trustees of which this tablet was erected, "not to perpetuate his memory, (which has a more durable monument,) but to show their respect and gratitude." In Brown's Chapel, adjoining this, are two tablets memorialising Gamalial Lloyd, merchant, who died in 1749; and his son George Lloyd, who died in 1783, and was buried in some village in Yorkshire. In the centre of this chapel, under a stone scarcely visible, is interred the body of the founder, who was a merchant of Manchester, and died in 1508. In the chapel dedicated to Jesus Christ are interred many of the family of the Byroms of Kersal; and monuments are erected to the memories of John Moss, Esq., who died in 1761-William Clowes, of Hunt's Bank, Esq., who died in 1772—and to Henry Atherton, of Lincoln's Inn, barrister-at-law, who died in 1816. In this neighbourhood too there is a marble tablet to the memory of Walter Raleigh Soulsby, Major of the Second Dragoon Guards, who died January 8th., 1827, aged thirty-three years. Not in the tumult of battle did his soul pass from him--but on the sick-bed and in the peaceful bivouac was he tempered for * Among other property which this esteemed lady left behind her, were many paintings of the Pretender, as he appeared upon his entry into Manchester. death. Near to the seats of the Municipal Officers are interred the Rev. Joshua Brookes, A.M., and Mr. Thomas Barritt. The former was twenty-one years Chaplain of the Church, and was somewhat of an eccentric character,— but a man of great learning and rigid discipline, and of a most warm and benevolent disposition. He died November 11, 1821, aged 67 years. Of the latter, we cannot speak better than in the words of his epitaph— "Here resteth the remains of Thomas Barritt, a profound antiquarian and a good man. He died honoured and respected by all ranks of society, October 29, 1820, aged 77 years." We must not omit to notice also a beautiful marble monument which will be found near to Strangeways Chapel, to the memory of the pious and charitable Mrs. Anne Hinde, widow of that Rev. John Hinde who was once a Fellow of this Church. She established a school for the education of a number of poor children-and though there may appear some ostentation in the manner of the charity, the good of it was "not interred with her bones." We now come to the point whence we commenced our brief survey, and have merely to notice two other monuments which were omitted at the onset, and which are amongst the most modern in the whole building. They are situated on each side of the entrance into the north aisle of the choir. The one on the left hand is to the memory of Samuel Taylor, of Moston, in this county, a Magistrate, and Lieut. Colonel of the Manchester and Salford Rifle Regiment of Volunteers, who died October 23, 1820, aged forty-eight years: the monument is of marble, and is in the Grecian style. The other, opposite to it, on the right of the entrance, is by Chantrey, to the memory of Edward Greaves, of Culcheth Hall, in Lancashire, who was in 1812 High Sheriff of the county, and died March 29, 1824, aged sixty-two. Numerous other memorials may be found by those who have time and inclination to ramble through the hoary edifice which is at once the ornament and history of the town; but in a sketchy outline like the present it would be almost superfluous to note them down. Of the building itself we will not attempt to discourse, for it is one of those "venerable piles"—those ancient gothic" immensities"-which genius alone must pourtray. Something resembling it might Childe Harold have had in view when he apostrophised "The vast and wondrous dome To which Diana's marvel was a cell" for the dull language of prose in either instance would fail to give an idea of the vast structure under contemplation: "Our outward sense Is but of gradual grasp-and as it is, Fools our fond gaze, and, greatest of the great, Till, growing with its growth, we thus dilate Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate. In our idle peregrination we have confined our description to that which is within its sphere, in the hope that some reader who has hitherto passed through the portal of the Church ingloriously may be induced to penetrate further into its "dim religious aisles," and to draw therefrom, and not from our recital, a fund of thought that in its application shall be made capable "to point a moral and adorn a tale." For ourselves, we trust there is some benefit derivable even from this our hundredth stroll through these habitations of the departed ones-that there is some good to be yet learnt, though the book and the lesson are alike worn and thumbed. We have taken our solitary ramble, and the light tramp of our foot has echoed through the empty passages; we have pored over the grotesque carved work and carried our mind back to those feudal days when the Church was all powerful, and when the word of its ministers was "sharper than a two-edged sword;" and we have endeavoured to imagine, from what has been, what may in all human probability even yet be, when another hundred years have succeeded to the last. In the womb of such an edifice as this how palpably do our own insignificance and futility appear to us, and how easily may we persuade ourselves that "man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain,-he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them!" As the banner that floated over the throne of Saladin, so are the monuments and memorials of the dead-on the one, as on the other, we read inscribed the same awful remembrancer, "Saladin must die!"* CONSECRATED CHURCHES IN MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. Name, and when Consecrated. Collegiate St. Anne's, 1712... Clerk in Orders, Rev. J. Marsden, Rev. Jeremiah Smith, D.D., Rector . Rev. J. Gatliffe, M.A., Rector.......... Sittings. 3000 1147 St. Paul's (Turner-street), 1765. Rev. J. Piccope, M.A., Incumbent 1397 550 The Collegiate Church was thoroughly repaired some years ago at an expense approaching in the whole to £20,000; the fact is recorded on a brass plate inserted into one of the pillars and bearing the following inscription:"These five pillars were erected, and the galleries and pews throughout the Church rebuilt, in the year of our Lord 1815. THOMAS BLACKBURNE, LL.D., Warden. |