Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/260

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212


NOTES AND QUERIES. uo s. x. SEPT. 12, im


shall be glad of correction if I am in error.

82c. Prof. Fawcett Memorial, Victoria Embankment. The medallion to the blind statesman forms a portion of a drinking fountain, which always when I have seen it has been conspicuously devoid of water.

83. Cleopatra's Needle, Victoria Embank- ment. It was first of all intended to erect this monolith in the centre of the pathway across Parliament Square and to carry the pathway round it. This was, however, found to be an unsuitable place, mainly on account of the great weight of the Needle, as the District Railway passes almost imme- diately below. A model was put up to enable the effect to be seen, but it was speedily removed and the idea abandoned.

87. Crosby Obelisk, Blackfriars Road. This obelisk has been removed, and re- erected within the railings of Bethlehem Hospital, facing St. George's Cathedral, A clock tower, erected at the cost of Messrs. Faulkner of Blackfriars Road, now occupies the original position, and was inaugurated by the Lord Mayor on 15 July, 1907.

92. Statue of Henry Fawcett, Vauxhall Park. This terra-cotta memorial gives an excellent idea of the brilliant M.P., but the winged figure seems to be out of place in such a work, so far as twentieth-century ideas go.

In addition to the list of sites for proposed statues mentioned by MB. PAGE, one at the corner of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall has been offered by the West- minster City Council to the Committee (subject to the approval of the Office of Works) for the erection of a memorial to the late Duke of Devonshire. Before long we are promised a statue to Cardinal Manning, to be placed near Westminster Cathedral.

I have a few additions to make to MR. PAGE'S list.

George Frederick Watts, R.A. In the little red-roofed cloister in the Postmen's Park, by the church of St. Botolph, Alders- gate that simple shrine of noble deeds performed by persons in lowly life there is, beneath the noble inscription, " The utmost for the highest," a statue of "a bearded man with lofty brow, grave and long robed," the veteran artist in his habit as he lived. Below is the simple dedicatory inscription : "In memoriam George Frede- rick Watts, who, desiring to honour heroic self-sacrifice, placed these records here." Throughout the whole of London there is no better memorial than this.


Sir James Duke, Bart., M. P. Affixed to the railings of the church of St. Dunstan-in- the-West, Fleet Street, is a drinking foun- tain, the inscription on which reads as follows : " The gift of Sir James Duke, Bart., M.P., Alderman of this Ward. I860." Around the edge of the basin is inscribed " The fear of God is a Fountain of Life." This little marble fountain is a memorial both of and to the donor, in so far as it emphasizes his connexion with the ward of the City in which it is situated.

Sir Augustus Harris. Attached to the walls of Drury Lane Theatre, by the side of the principal entrance in Catherine Street, is an elaborate drinking fountain, in marble, stone, and bronze, to the memory of this well-known public man, the lessee of the theatre and sometime Sheriff of London. There is a bronze bust, which is an excellent likeness. It is inscribed : " Augustus Harris. Erected by public subscription." Sir Augustus died 22 June, 1896, and the memorial was unveiled by the then Lord Mayor (Sir G. Faudel-Phillips) on 1 Nov., 1897. Vide 'Era Almanack.'

The Wrestlers. At the east end of the gardens of the Victoria Embankment, by the Temple Station, are two exquisitely modelled figures inscribed as above, with the addition of " Herculaneum " and the statement that they were given by A. F. Buxton, L.C.C.

Lady Henry Somerset. A few yards off is a drinking fountain in rockwork with a bronze figure of a child bearing aloft a shallow basin. The inscription reads :

" From children | of the Loyal Temperance Legion

I in memory of work done | for the Temperance

Cause by | Lady Henry Somerset, | President of the

National Temperance Association, I Incorporated

| June, 1896."

Sir J. Bazalgette, C.E. Affixed to one of the massive granite piers of the Embank- ment itself, facing Northumberland Avenue, is an important memorial in stone and bronze to the above-named gentleman. At the top are his armorial bearings ; and below the motto, " Flumini Vincula Posuit." Beneath a full-face bust in bronze is a scroll with this inscription :

" Sir Joseph Bazalgette, C.E. | Engineer of the London Main Drainage System, I and of this Em- bankment, j Born 1819. Died 1889."

Queen Victoria. Upon the Albert Em- bankment, facing the office and pottery of Messrs. Doulton & Co., is a statue of her late Majesty, which with the pedestal is in terra-cotta. The figure is well modelled, and represents her either at the time when