The Cathedral Church of Peterborough eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 137 pages of information about The Cathedral Church of Peterborough.

The Cathedral Church of Peterborough eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 137 pages of information about The Cathedral Church of Peterborough.

    In sacred sleep the pious Bishop lies,
    Say not in death—­A good Man never dies.

[Illustration:  South Aisles of Choir and Nave.]

On the tablet to Bishop Cumberland, 1718, are four Latin lines from Dean Duport’s epigram upon the Bishop’s confutation of Hobbes.  In the south choir aisle, on the tablet to Dean Lockier, 1740, is the only instance of the arms of the Deanery impaling another shield, on a monument.  Near this is a wooden tablet executed in good taste, recording the fact that the iron screens are a memorial to Dean Argles, whose munificent gifts to the cathedral are well known.  The Norman arch at the west end of this aisle has a modern painted inscription, believed to be an exact copy of the original:—­

    Hos tres Abbates, Quibus est Prior Abba Johannes
    Alter Martinus, Andreas Ultimus, unus
    Hic claudit Tumulus; pro Clausis ergo rogemus
.

Near this is a tablet to Roger Pemberton, 1695, with a line from Homer in Greek, “The race of men is as the race of leaves.”  In the north choir aisle John Workman, Prebendary, 1685, is described as Proto-Canonicus, probably meaning that he held the first stall.  The tablet to Frances Cosin (d. 1642), wife of the Dean, afterwards Bishop of Durham, was not erected till after the Bishop’s death in 1672.  He prescribed in his will the words of the inscription.  On the large tablet above the piscina is a punning motto, Temperantia te Temperatrice, the person commemorated being Richard Tryce, 1767.

Two tablets of interest in connexion with the Great War are to be seen in the south aisle of the nave, one in marble to Nurse Cavell, and the other in bronze to the “lonely Anzac,” Thomas Hunter, an Australian who died in Peterborough from wounds received in France.

Last of all we must speak of the one memorial which is usually looked at first, the famous picture of Old Scarlett, on the wall of the western transept.  He is represented with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in his leathern girdle; at his feet is a skull.  At the top of the picture are the arms of the cathedral.  Beneath the portrait are these lines:—­

    YOV SEE OLD SCARLEITS PICTVRE STAND ON HIE
    BVT AT YOVR FEETE THERE DOTH HIS BODY LYE
    HIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE AND DEATH TIME SHOW
    HIS OFFICE BY THEIS TOKENS YOV MAY KNOW
    SECOND TO NONE FOR STRENGTH AND STVRDYE LIMM
    A SCARBABE MIGHTY VOICE WITH VISAGE GRIM
    HEE HAD INTER’D TWO QVEENES WITHIN THIS PLACE
    AND THIS TOWNES HOVSEHOLDERS IN HIS LIVES SPACE
    TWICE OVER:  BVT AT LENGTH HIS ONE TVRNE CAME
    WHAT HEE FOR OTHERS DID FOR HIM THE SAME
    WAS DONE:  NO DOVBT HIS SOVL DOTH LIVE FOR AYE
    IN HEAVEN:  THOVGH HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN CLAY.

On the floor is a stone inscribed:  “Ivly 2 1594 R S aetatis 98.”  This painting is not a contemporary portrait, but a copy made in 1747.  In 1866 it was sent on loan to the South Kensington Museum.

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The Cathedral Church of Peterborough from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.