“George” how many pounds a year they are in pocket by catering good dinners, and the very best of their wines, to hungry enthusiasts from the four quarters of the world, who wisely deem it a duty as well as a pleasure to see the statue and the land of Bacon—to stand reverentially and thoughtfully by the grave of so great a man.
Wotton wrote the epitaph—that Wotton
Who had so many languages in store,
That only fame shall speak of him in more.
Admirable as it is, it has but one fault (shade of Samuel Johnson, we humbly ask your pardon), the language in which it is written is not the language of Lord Bacon—“words which wise Bacon and brave Raleigh spake” might surely have been found to have pointed the “here lies,” or “hic jacet,” if you will, of Francis Bacon.
The name of the sculptor of the statue is unknown. Who could have cut and fashioned this once rude block of Italian marble into life? Was it Gerard Johnson, of the parish of St. Thomas the Apostle in Southwark, who carved the bust of Shakspeare over the poet’s grave at Stratford-upon-Avon? Was it Cornelius Cure, who made the monumental tomb of Mary Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey? Was it William Cure, the king’s mason (son and successor to Cornelius), who made the painted and gilded tomb “set up” at Cranford, in Middlesex, to the memory of Sir Roger Aston, Master of the Great Wardrobe to King James I .? Was it Gerard or Garrett Christmas, citizen of London, and carver, who made the effigy of Archbishop Abbot, at Guildford, in Surrey? or was it John or Mathias Christmas—or both together? They were the sons of Garrett, of whose skill with the chisel the marble busts of Ralph Hawtrey and his wife, at Riselip, in Middlesex, are favourable examples? Was it Fanelli, the Florentine, who made the busts in metal of Lady Cottington, Lady Venetia Digby, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and of Sir Robert Ayton? Was it the unknown sculptor of the fine monument of Sir Francis Vere, so much admired by no less a sculptor than Roubiliac? Was it Nicholas Stone, William Cure’s successor as master-mason, towards the end of the reign of James I., “esteemed,” as his epitaph informs us, “for his knowledge in sculpture and architecture, which his works in many parts do testify.” Hardly, for there is no mention of it in his pocket-book, preserved by Vertue and printed by Walpole? Was it Mr. Jansen, in Southwark, who worked jointly with Nicholas Stone on the monument of Sutton, the founder of the Charter House? Was it Mr. Marshall, the stone-cutter, who made the monumental bust which Anne, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery set up in Westminster Abbey to the memory of Michael Drayton?
There is no telling. Of the sculptors we have named, the best claim would seem to lie with Nicholas Stone; and the following entry, made by Stone in his pocket-book, would seem to justify our belief that Stone was the man. That he worked for the Bacons, the following entry is proof unmistakeable:—
1620. In Suffolke I made a tomb for Sir Edmund Bacon’s ladys, and in the same church of Redgrave I made another for his sister Lady (Gawdy), and was very well payed for them. And in the same place I made two pictors of white marbell of Sir N. Bacon and his lady, and they were layed upon the tomb that Bernard Janson had made there, for the which two pictors I was payed by Sir Edmund Bacon, £200.
