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Clare, to the memory of his son Francis
Hollis, a youth of great bravery, who,
after returning from making a campaign in
Flanders, died on the 12th of August 1622,
aged eighteen. He is represented clad in
Grecian armour, sitting on a Greek altar.
A good author mentioning this statue, says,
that it expresses more juvenile sweetness
and beauty, than any thing of the kind he
ever saw, and that if this figure has any
fault in character or design, it is being
placed in a languid sedentary posture, tho'
cloathed in armour, and described as a hero
in his bloom; a more spirited attitude, he
observes, would have been more suitable to
the person represented, would have given
the statuary greater latitude to exert his
genius, and afforded more satisfaction to
the spectator. The epitaph on this is as
follows:
What so thou hast of nature or of arts,
Youth, beauty, strength, or what excelling parts
Of mind and body, letters, arms, and worth,
His eighteen years, beyond his years brought forth:
Then stand, and read thyself within this glass,
How soon these perish, and thy self may pass;
Man's life is measur'd by the work, not days,
No aged sloth, but active youth hath praise.
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| A B B | 39 |
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On an altar, in the same taste, but differ-
ently ornamented, sits the statue of the Lady
Elizabeth Russel, the daughter of Lord
Russel. This statue is of white alabaster,
and the Lady is represented in a sleeping
posture. Your guides say, that she died
with a prick of her finger; but this story
has no other foundation, than a misappre-
hension of the statuary's design; for having
represented her asleep, and pointing with
her finger to a death's head under her right
foot, it has been supposed, by the position
of her finger pointing downwards, that it
was bleeding, and that this had closed her
eyes in death; though the artist's design
seems rather to allude to the composed si-
tuation of her mind at the approach of
death, which she considered only as a pro-
found sleep, from which she was again to
wake to a joyful resurrection, of which the
motto under her feet, is an evident illustra-
tion; Dormit, non mortua est; "She is not
dead, but sleepeth." The Latin inscription
on the scroll beneath, only tells that this
monument was erected to her memory by
her afflicted sister Anne. The device is an
eagle, the emblem of eternity, resting on a
florilege of roses, &c.
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