WATT. 53 



the infirmities of age, the calm and cheerful evening 

 of his life passed after the useful labours of its day had 

 closed. He died on the 25th of August, 1819, in his 

 eighty-fourth year. His remains lie buried in Hands- 

 worth church, near his residence of Heathfield, and a 

 statue, the work of Chantrey, is there erected to his 

 memory by his son ; and the same filial piety has pre- 

 sented a statue to the College of Glasgow, in grateful 

 recollection of early patronage. But a truly noble 

 monument is raised to him in Westminster Abbey, by 

 the genius of Chantrey, at the expense of the sover- 

 eign and of many peers and distinguished commoners, 

 who held a meeting in honour of this illustrious man 

 and great public benefactor. The ministers of the 

 crown, and the chiefs of the opposition in either House 

 of Parliament, the most eminent men of science, the 

 most distinguished cultivators of the arts, assembled 

 with this view, and the account of their proceedings 

 was made public in an authentic form. The prime min- 

 ister, Lord Liverpool, presided; and it was none of the 

 least remarkable passages of that day, that his succes- 

 sor, the present premier, was anxious to declare the 

 obligation under which he lay to the genius of him 

 they were commemorating, the fortunes of his family 

 being reared by manufacturing industry, founded upon 

 the happy inventions of Arkwright and Watt. It has 

 ever been reckoned by me one of the chief honours of 

 rny life, that I was called upon to pen the inscription 

 upon the noble monument thus nobly reared. 



The chisel of Chantrey, whose greatest work this 

 certainly is, has admirably presented the features of 

 the countenance at once deeply meditative and calmly 

 placid, but betokening power rather than delicacy and 

 refinement. The civilized world is filled with im- 

 perishable records of his genius, and the grateful 

 recollection of the whole species embalms his memory. 

 But for this, the author of the epitaph might well feel 

 how inadequately his feeble pen had performed its 



