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Sweet were his manners, as his soul was great,
And ripe his worth, tho' immature his fate;
Each tender grace that joy and love inspires,
Living, he mingled with his martial fires;
Dying, he bid Britannia's thunder roar,
And Spain still felt him, when he breath'd no more.
69. A beautiful monument erected to
the memory of Admiral Balchen, on which
is his bust well executed in the finest white
marble. The enrichments, arms and
trophies, are admirably wrought, but in
fastening the cable to the anchor this ex-
cellent artist has shewn that he is no ma-
riner. In the front is a fine representation
of a ship in a storm. The inscription is as
follows:
To the memory of Sir John Balchen, Knt.
Admiral of the White Squadron of his
Majesty's fleet in 1744, being sent out
Commander in chief of the combined
fleets of England and Holland, to cruize
on the enemy, was on his return home
in his Majesty's ship the Victory, lost in
the Channel by a violent storm; from
which sad circumstance of his death we
may learn, that neither the gtreatest skill,
judgment, or experience, joined to the
most firm unshaken resolution, can resist
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the fury of the winds and waves; and
we are taught from the passages of his
life, which were filled with great and
gallant actions, but ever accompanied
with adverse gales of fortune, that the
brave, the worthy and the good man,
meets not always his reward in this
world. Fifty-eight years of faithful and
painful services he had passed, when be-
ing just retired to the government of
Greenwich Hospital to wear out the re-
mainder of his days, he was once more,
and for the last time, called out by his
King and Country, whose interest he ever
preferred to his own, and his unwearied
zeal for their service ended only in his
death; which weighty misfortune to his
afflicted family became heightened by
many aggravating circumstances attend-
ing it; yet amidst their grief had they
the mournful consolation to find his gra-
cious and royal Master mixing his con-
cern with the general lamentations of the
public, for the calamitous fate of so zeal-
ous, so valiant, and so able a Commander;
and as a lasting memorial of the sincere
love and esteem borne by his widow, to
a most affectionate and worthy husband,
this honourary monument was erected by
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