THE NORTH AISLE OF THE CHOIR, LOOKING WEST.
Over the back of the Choir Stalls, which are seen on the left of the picture, rise a few of the pedal pipes of the Organ, the largest of which is thirty-two feet in length. Through the openwork of Tijou's beautiful iron gates, the view extends across the Dome to the extreme west of the Cathedral. At the end of the North Aisle of the Nave a glimpse is obtained of a window (presented by Mr. H. F. Vernon in 1861) containing a full length figure of S. Paul.
[Illustration: THE NORTH AISLE OF THE CHOIR, LOOKING WEST.]
In this Chapel Matins are said at eight o'clock in the morning on all week days throughout the year. In the foreground is the burial place of Dean Milman, marked by a slab with a cross wrought upon its surface. To the west of this, not shown, however, in the view, is the grave of Dr. Liddon. In the Aisles to the right and left are seen a few fragments of monuments from the old Cathedral, scanty relics, spared by the great fire of 1666 and by the ruthless hand of the destroyer.
The present view represents one of the most picturesque scenes in the Crypt. Here, surrounded by an arcade, in the very heart of the Cathedral, immediately beneath the centre of the Dome, stands the tomb of England's greatest naval hero.
The Sarcophagus itself has a strange history. It is usually said to have been designed by Torregiano as a portion of the memorial of Wolsey. "It lay for centuries neglected in Wolsey's Chapel at Windsor. Just at the time of Nelson's death, George III. was preparing to make that chapel a cemetery for his family. It was suggested as fit to encase the coffin of Nelson. It is a fine work marred in its bold simplicity by a tawdry coronet, but the master Italian hand is at once recognised by the instructed eye." So Dean Milman writes.
Recent researches have shown that the Sarcophagus, which is of white and black marble, is the work of Benedetto da Rovezzano, by whom it was commenced in 1524 as part of a stately monument intended by Cardinal Wolsey as a magnificent memorial of himself. It appears that Henry VIII. took possession of the materials prepared for Wolsey's monument, and that Benedetto was commissioned to transform it into a memorial for the king. The sculptor spent upon it eleven years of labour, but the costly work was never completed. The body of Nelson rests, not in the Sarcophagus, but beneath it.