3-028-703 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Statue of Lord Palmerston at Southampton, 1869. 'This statue is the work of Mr. Thomas Sharp,...It was exhibited last year at the Royal Academy, and has been praised as a good likeness. As a work of art, its design is semi-classical; the cloak which Lord Palmerston actually wore, it is said, at the opening of the Hartley Institute in Southampton being introduced, with its pendent folds, to qualify the modern garb of coat and trousers; though we never saw him wear it like an antique Roman toga. His left hand holds a scroll, and the books at his feet are inscribed with the titles of his offices, from the year 1809 to the time of his decease, October, 1865, when he was Prime Minister. He is in the act of speaking, holding a scroll in one hand, while the other is on the breast, "indicative of the honesty of purpose and warmth of feeling with which he for so long a period had advocated all that was just and right for the benefit of his country and for the welfare of his fellow-men." The statue is of Sicilian marble, 8 ft. high...on the front of the pedestal is the following inscription: "Palmerston, K.G., G.C.B. Born 1784; died 1865. A burgess of Southampton. Erected by public subscription. Frederick Perkins, Mayor, A.D. 1869".' From "Illustrated London News", 1869.