3-003-692 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Statue of the late Mr. Robert Hall, M.P. for Leeds, and Recorder of Doncaster, 1861. 'The memory of this gentleman, whose great abilities and social and public virtues are held in merited esteem by his townsmen and constituents in Leeds, has been handed down to posterity by the erection of a statue in the Victoria Hall, at the Leeds Townhall. The work is colossal in size, is of the purest white Carrara marble, and has been executed by Messrs. Lee and Welsh, sculptors, of Leeds. It is, perhaps, the largest and finest statue yet executed in the provinces. The deceased member is represented in his official costume, his right hand stretched out, in the act of speaking, while his left holds a roll of paper. At his feet, one of the principal acts of his life is represented in the Reformatories Bill laid upon a volume of the statutes. The pedestal is of red Aberdeen granite, and bears the simple inscription "Robert Hall, M.P., Leeds, 1857." The statue was presented to the Municipal Council, on behalf of the subscribers, on the 12th instant, by George Skirrow Beecroft, Esq., M.P., one of the present members for Leeds, who succeeded Mr. Hall upon that gentleman's sudden and lamented decease in 1857'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.