3-028-696 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The grave of Charles Dickens in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, 1870. 'The venerable Abbey Church...has lately received the mortal body of another English worthy...last week, by order of Dean Stanley,...the grave of Charles Dickens was made here in the middle of the floor...The elaborate monument of the Duke of Argyll in George II.'s time - Jeanie Deans's good Duke, in "The Heart of Midlothian" - rises opposite...The monuments of Goldsmith and Gay...are shown to the left...[Dickens'] grave, already strewed with flowers, would henceforth be a sacred spot both with the New World as well as with the Old, as that of the representative of the literature, not of this island only, but of all who speak our English tongue. The Dean [Dr. Stanley] then read the following extract from Mr. Dickens's will, dated May 12, 1869: "I direct that my name be inscribed in plain English letters on my tomb... I enjoin my friends on no account to make me the subject of any monument, memorial, or testimonial whatever. I rest my claims to the remembrance of my country upon my published works, and the remembrance of my friends upon their experience of me in addition thereto"...Thousands have visited Poets' Corner since his interment on Tuesday week'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.