"England, Netherlands, the Heavens and the Arts, The Souldiers and the World, have made six parts Of noble Sidney; for none will suppose That a small heap of stones can Sidney enclose.
His body hath England, for she it bred; Netherlands his blood, in her defence shed; The Heavens have his soule, the Arts his fame, All Souldiers the grief, the World his good name."
Another wooden tablet in the north aisle was to the memory of his father-in-law, the statesman Walsingham; and numerous other statesmen, nobles, divines, and lawyers were buried, or at least remembered. We can but regret that these are now things of the past, and gone, with the exception of the effigy of Dean Donne--as remarkable as the man himself--and a few mutilated remains. Even Colet's is gone.
Before descending to the Crypt we may remark that the Interior must have fully emphasised the sense of majestic beauty produced by the Exterior. The long perspective eastward from the West Door, flanked on either side by the arcading and terminating with a glimpse of the rose window over the choir screen, as depicted in Dugdale, leaves nothing to be desired.
=The Crypt or Shrouds.=--The crypt was underneath the eight eastern bays of the choir, and was about 170 feet in length.[48] The entrance was from the churchyard on the north side, and the gloom was lit up by basement windows both at the sides and east end. An additional row of piers down the centre supported the choir pavement above; and the whole undercroft may best be described as of eight arches in length and four in breadth, the arches springing from engaged columns and the vaulting quadripartite.
The mouldings of the clustered columns were plain rounds and hollows, and everything throughout appears to have been uniform and of the same date. The four western bays, rather more than half, formed the parish church of St. Faith; the eastern part the Jesus Chapel, which, after the suppression of the Guild, was added to St. Faith's. These two parts were separated by a wooden screen, and over the door was an image of Jesus, and underneath the inscription:
"Jesus our God and Saviour To us and ours be Gouernour."
These remarks about the Jesus Chapel, be it noted, date only from the reign of Henry VI., by whom the Guild was incorporated, and the members of which held high festival on the days of the Transfiguration and of the Name of Jesus.