In a side chapel at St Peter's Church, Edensor there's an ostentatious carved marble edifice called The Cavendish Monument. It commemorates the lives of two brothers - sons of Sir William Cavendish (1505-1557) and the redoubtable Bess of Hardwick (1527-1608).
Lying in the black box structure is an effigy of William Cavendish, the first Earl of Devonshire (1552-1626) but beside him, facing the other way is a marble skeleton lying on a bed of woven straw. This represents Henry Cavendish (1550-1616) who by all accounts was an aristocratic scoundrel - a spendthrift who fathered at least eight illegitimate children. He ran up enormous debts and was disowned by his mother. The marble skeleton is both spooky and surprising
The visitor from Virginia asked me about the monument and was impressed that I knew so much about it. I didn't let on that I had checked out that side chapel a few hours earlier and had read up about the monument. The information was fresh in my memory and had not yet leaked away.
Interestingly, the reclining front brother William, an active parliamentarian, had played a significant role in arguing for the colonisation of Virginia in the mid sixteenth century but I didn't tell the American lady that as I only discovered it later.
The long inscriptions on the tomb are both in Latin and allude to two very different brothers. Henry "indulged in the liberal and sumptuous use of his fortune" but William "was not only the best man of his own age but of every age,
The Cavendish Monument at Edensor
I would rather endure a speech by Liz Truss than look upon that skeleton.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone troubled by this Memento Mori, please watch YouTube :
*A Toast Tae The Daft Days - a poyum by Len Pennie.* Miss PunnyPennie.
*I'm no havin children - a poyum by Len Pennie.* Miss PunnyPennie.
*Glasgow Kiss - a poyum by Len Pennie.* Miss PunnyPennie.
Yet always when I look death in the face,
When I clamber to the heights of sleep,
Or when I grow excited by wine,
Suddenly I meet your face.
W.B. Yeats. A Deep-Sworn Vow. 1919.
Keeping Scots Language Alive/ In Search of Sir Walter Scott/ BBC Scotland.
ReplyDeleteYouTube. August 15 2021. BBC Scotland.
In search of Sir Walter Scott? I know where to find him. He's in Dryburgh Abbey grounds and he isn't moving. I once saw his resting place.
DeleteWe can safely assume that no one in the future will visit the resting place of Liz Truss.
DeleteGeorge Monbiot said she is the Manchurian Candidate who has been put in place by the 'dark money' :
Liz is the puppet of the corrupt money men who could not give twopence for the people of Britain.
Roberto Saviano, the courageous Italian journalist, said London is the most corrupt financial city in the world.
Monbiot's imagery is always brilliant and I agree with him completely.
*Liz Truss : The Oligarch's Prime Minister/ George Monbiot.*
YouTube. Double Down News.
Sounds like these guys had too much money and didn't know what to do with it.
ReplyDeleteNot a problem I have ever had to endure.
DeleteGlad to know it wasn't a real skeleton. Not my thing.
ReplyDeleteSome things don't change, families can be difficult:)
ReplyDeleteEven posh and influential families like the Cavendishes.
DeleteI was thinking how nicely polished those bones are then read they were marble. it's a very nice monument.
ReplyDeleteHenry Cavendish must have been on a very effective diet.
DeleteTotally creepy. These marble memorials from the past maybe works of art in their own right and are a pretty good way of keeping death in focus.
ReplyDeleteIn those days they did not sweep death under the proverbial carpet.
Delete"indulged in the liberal and sumptuous use of his fortune". I really need a fortune to use liberally and sumptuously. I would try not to be lavish about it though.
ReplyDeleteYou could buy yourself a gold lamé suit and a sombrero.
DeleteHow very unusual to have a memorial made for two very different brothers and so clearly and openly displaying their differences. Isn't it usually in the most flowery and pieous words that memorials talk about the deceased in which honour it is erected? Don't speak ill of the dead, and all that.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the American lady listening wide-eyed to your every word! Did she give you a generous tip?
Yes she did. The tip she gave me was "Sherwood Green" in the 3.30 at Ripon.
DeleteI saw a similar skeleton sculpture like that when I visited Kent recently. Gruesome and it displays our mortality.
ReplyDeleteOur ancestors were much closer to death than we are. They knew it better and maybe the marble skeletons indicate that.
DeleteThe marble skeleton, although wonderfully crafted, must surely scare quite a few young children. And me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it gives you an idea for Lord Peregrine's grave - many, many years from now.
DeleteHow different brothers can be.
ReplyDeleteI read on Robin's blog that it is your birthday today, Neil! We are celebrating my cousin's 75th birthday today too. Hope you have a wonderful birthday and a year filled with good health and fun adventures! :)
ReplyDeleteThere's such a thing as taking dieting too far!
ReplyDeleteIt is a quite incredible, but spooky, skeleton.
For many years now, I've always heard that an artist looks at a chunk of marble and simply removes what doesn't belong. But in this context, it seems kind of twisted to remove everything but the "bones".
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a monument. The marble skeleton is interesting. I've never seen anything quite like that.
ReplyDelete