The finest object in the church was the marble figure of a
little child as she appeared--
Before Decay's effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers,
which for simplicity, elegance, and childlike innocence of face was said
to be the most interesting and pathetic monument in England. It is
reputed to be the masterpiece of the English sculptor Thomas Banks,
whose work was almost entirely executed abroad, where he was better
known than in England. The inscriptions on it were in four different
languages, English, Italian, French, and Latin, that in English being:
I was not in safety, neither had I rest, and the trouble came.
The dedication was inscribed:
TO PENELOPE
ONLY CHILD OF SIR BROOKE BOOTHBY AND DAME SUSANNAH BOOTHBY.
Born April 11th 1785, died March 13th 1791. She was in form and
intellect most exquisite The unfortunate parents ventured their all
in this Frail bark, And the wreck was Total.
The melancholy reference to their having ventured their all bore upon
the separation between the father and mother, which immediately followed
the child's death.
The description of the monument reads as follows:
The figure of the child reclines on a pillowed mattress, her hands
resting one upon the other near her head.
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