Читать книгу The Cambrian Tourist, or, Post-Chaise Companion through Wales: 1834 онлайн

27 страница из 47

St. Mary Redcliff Church, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful gothic structures for a parish church in England, next merits attention. The present edifice was erected by William Canning, an eminent merchant of Bristol, about the year 1456; the foundation having been commenced by his grandfather of the same name, on the site of the former church, built by Simon de Burton, in the year 1294. Canning having been rendered unhappy by the death of his wife, and being pressed by the King to a second marriage, he took holy orders to avoid an act so repugnant to his feelings: he was afterwards Dean of Westbury, to which he was likewise a great benefactor. He died in 1474, and was buried in the south end of the aisle of this church, in which are two monuments erected to his memory; in the one he is represented in his magisterial robes (he having been five times Mayor of Bristol), with his lady by his side, with a long inscription on two tables. In the other monument he is habited as a priest.