James Russell Lowell, A Biography; vol 2/2

1890.

POSTHUMOUS.

1891.

1892.

1893.

1894.

1895.

1896.

1897.

1899.

1900.

D. THE LOWELL MEMORIAL IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

The Dean of Westminster presided, and the Chapter-house was filled with a numerous audience. Among those who had been invited, and the greater number of whom were present, were the Lord Chancellor and Lady Herschell, the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Earl of Rosebery, Lord Knutsford, the Dowager Countess of Derby, the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, Lady Arthur Russell, Lord and Lady Coleridge, Lord and Lady Reay, Lord Aberdare, the Earl and Countess Brownlow, Lord and Lady R. Churchill, Adeline Duchess of Bedford, Lord and Lady Playfair, the Countess of Ashburton, Mr. J. Chamberlain, M. P., and Mrs. Chamberlain, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, M. P., the diplomatic representatives of America, Italy, Greece, Russia, Spain, Denmark, Germany, and France, Judge Hughes, Professor Huxley, Archdeacon Farrar, Sir Henry James, M. P., Sir J. Hassard, representing the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Rathbone, M. P., General and Mrs. Clive, Miss Balfour, Mr. and Mrs. Gosse, Mrs. Lynn Linton, Mr. Spencer Lyttelton, Dr. Martineau, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, Mr. and Mrs. Smalley, Mr. W. Besant, Miss Bradley, Mr. and Mrs. Darwin, Mrs. A. Murray Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Birrell, Mr. F. W. Gibbs, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr. George Meredith, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Mr. Dykes Campbell, Mr. G. Du Maurier, and Mrs. Matthew Arnold. Sir William Harcourt was unavoidably prevented from attending by Ministerial business.

The Dean of Westminster said that he had been asked to take the chair on this interesting and suggestive occasion. They had met in that venerable and stately building to pay some tribute to the memory of one who, from the first day which he spent in this country up to the date of his death, had endeared himself to an ever-widening circle of friends, and who had for many years been the representative in the Queen’s dominions of that great Republic of the West. He would leave it to others to speak of Mr. Lowell’s great qualities, and of the position which he held as a poet, a humorist, and essayist. Mr. Lowell was worthy to be reckoned among the great writers of our tongue—Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and those poets whom we had so lately lost. They all deeply regretted the absence of Mr. Balfour and its cause, but they gratefully recognized the service which Mr. Leslie Stephen was rendering them by his presence. There was no one to whom the task of speaking of Mr. Lowell could so wisely be entrusted. In the presence of the American Ambassador he might, perhaps, be allowed to speak of the special fitness of the place in which they were assembled—which was a part of the ancient Abbey, the very heart and centre of that Benedictine monastery, and used solely as the daily meeting-place of the monks. There was no spot in the kingdom or in the world which could compare in historic interest and significance with that in which they were met. That part of the Abbey with which so many associations had gathered, and which was now known by the name of Poets’ Corner, dated from the period of the commencement of the House of Commons, whose members in the earliest days and for three centuries of its existence were summoned within the walls of the Chapter-house. Thus the room where they were sitting was not only the meeting-place of the Benedictine monks of Westminster, but it was also for a long period the ordinary meeting-place of the Commons of England. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the Chapter-house was vested in the Crown, and was still so vested, and it was by the permission of the First Commissioner of Works that the present meeting to do honor to a great American was held. For three more centuries after the Commons had ceased to be summoned to the Chapter-house, the house was used, he would not say as a lumber-room, but as a record-room in which were stored the invaluable documents which belonged to the House of Commons and the various Government offices. One deficiency, however, long remained, which his dear and illustrious predecessor long tried to remove. The late Dean endeavored to induce successive Governments to fill the windows with stained glass, but without success. After his death, however, one of the windows was filled. No meeting could have been more representative of the whole English-speaking race than the one which was held when that window was unveiled. He could imagine that he was still hearing the words which fell from Mr. Lowell on that occasion, Si monumentum quæris, circumspice. No words could have been more eloquent or impressive than those used by the American Minister of that day. That was the first time he himself had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Lowell’s voice. The next historic meeting in that room was one called to unveil a painted window, the gift of the Queen, which was inserted in memory of Lady Augusta Stanley. That meeting, also, Mr. Lowell attended. Two years afterwards he had had the privilege, in his capacity of Dean, of summoning a meeting with a view to honor the American poet Longfellow, to whom a memorial stood in Poets’ Corner. A fourth meeting was held in memory of one to whom as poet and thinker the older generation owed so much. It had been his privilege to place a bust in memory of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Lowell on that occasion made one of the most sympathetic and appreciative speeches to which he had ever listened. They would all agree that no more suitable spot could be chosen on which to perpetuate the memory of one who was not only for many years the representative in this country of the great American Republic, but was so great an ornament to that language and literature which were the common heritage of Americans and Englishmen alike.

Speeches were made also by Mr. Leslie Stephen, Mr. J. Chamberlain, M. P., and Mr. Bayard, the American Ambassador.

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