This fashion of high windows, not reaching within twenty or
thirty feet of the floor, serves to give great effect to the large
enclosed space of an antique hall. Against the walls are several marble
monuments; one to the Earl of Chatham, a statue of white marble, with
various allegorical contrivances, fronting an obelisk or pyramid of dark
marble; and another to his son, William Pitt, of somewhat similar design
and of equal size; each of them occupying the whole space, I believe,
between pavement and ceiling. There is likewise a statue of Beckford, a
famous Lord Mayor,--the most famous except Whittington, and that one who
killed Wat Tyler; and like those two, his fame is perhaps somewhat
mythological, though he lived and bustled within less than a century. He
is said to have made a bold speech to the King; but this I will not
believe of any Englishman--at least, of any plebeian Englishman--until I
hear it. But there stands his statue in the Guildhall in the act of
making his speech, as if the monstrous attempt had petrified him.
Lord Nelson, too, has a monument, and so, I think, has some other modern
worthy. At one end of the hall, under one of the great painted windows,
stand three or four old statues of mediaeval kings, whose identities I
forget; and in the two corners of the opposite end are two gigantic
absurdities of painted wood, with grotesque visages, whom I quickly
recognized as Gog and Magog. They stand each on a pillar, and seem to be
about fifteen feet high, and look like enormous playthings for the
children of giants; and it is strange to see them in this solemn old
hall, among the memorials of dead heroes and statesmen.
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