476 OBSERVATIONS ON SCULPTURE. 
The two naval officers are naked, which destroys 
historic probability. It cannot be a representa- 
tion of what happened, for no British warriors go 
naked into battle, or wear sandals or Asiatic - 
mantles. As little can it be accepted as strictly 
poetic, for the heads of the heroes are modern 
and the bodies antique. Everyday noses and 
chins are supported on bodies moulded according 
to the god-like proportions of the Greek statues. 
Next, certain grave divines took offence at the 
small line of drapery which drops over the 
shoulder of Captain Burgess, and Banks added 
a hand-breadth to it with no little reluctance. 
When clergymen declared themselves satisfied, 
the ladies thought they might venture to draw 
near—but the flutter of fans and the averting of 
faces was prodigious. That Victory, a modest and 
well-draperied dame, should approach an undrest 
dying man, and crown him with laurel, might be 
endured—but how a well drest young lady could 
think of presenting a sword to a naked gentleman, 
went far beyond all their notions of propriety. 
But Banks had been more successful in earlier 
life, when he did not attempt allegory but follow- 
ed nature. One of the most affecting Monuments 
in this country, is that which Banks erected in 
Ashbourne Church in Derbyshire, to the only 
