^o SIJ? EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 



of the metal of a number of guns recovered from the wreck of the Royal George, is the 

 work of the late E. Baily, R.A. But the amount subscribed had reached only to 

 / 1 7,000 ; and it was evident that the ornamental bas-reliefs, and the four lions at the 

 corners of the plinth, which had been assigned to Mr. Lough, must be postponed till 

 further funds were supplied. The money already expended, other subscriptions having 

 come in while the "pillar," as some critics called it, was being built, the committee, m 

 1844, proposed asking Government for a sum of / 10,000 or ^^ 12,000 to complete the 

 work. The application was so far successful that Parliament voted the same year 

 ^8,000 towards the amount required. Still no progress was made with the wprk ; and 

 it was not till the close of the following year that the bas-reliefs for the pedestal 

 illustrating Nelson's four great exploits — at Cape St. Vincent, Copenhagen, the Nile, and 

 Trafalgar — ^were respectively entrusted to Messrs. M. S. Watson, Woodington, Carew, 

 and Ternouth ; Mr. Lough being still designated as the sculptor of the lions. The four 

 sculptors of the bas-reliefs were to receive £ i ,000 each for their respective works. In 

 1847 3- further sum of ^^2,000 was voted by the House of Commons towards the 

 payment of expenses ; Lord Morpeth, on the part of the Government, stating that he 

 " was afraid even that sum would not finish the monument, as it would only complete 

 ;^ 10,000 out of ^12,000 estimated to be necessary for that purpose; Indeed, if the 

 original design were carried out, the expense would be ;^ 16,000 or ^17,000." Towards 

 the close of the year 1849 Carew' s bas-relief, " The Death of Nelson at Trafalgar," 

 was placed on that side of the pedestal which faces Charing Cross ; in the spring of 

 the following year appeared Woodington' s " Battle of the NUe " on the opposite side ; 

 and in 1851 "The Bombardment of Copenhagen," by Ternouth, who died about two 

 years previously, was placed on the side looking towards the Strand. About the 

 middle of the year 1854 the remaining pedestal, that fronting Cockspur Street, obtained 

 its bas-relief, "Nelson receiving the Sword of the Captain of the San Josef at the 

 Action off Cape St. Vincent," from Watson's design, who completed the model just 

 before his death in 1847. The work was subsequently carried out by Mr. Woodington. 



Some evil genius seemed almost from the first to have woven a spell round 

 the testimonial to the hero of the Nile and Trafalgar; for, in addition to the 

 wearisome delays towards completion, and before the whole of the bas-reliefs were 

 in their places, the Attorney-General was ordered, on the part of the Government, to 

 prosecute certain contractors for casting the metal, on the charge of having used 

 inferior materials to those they had agreed to employ. The jury returned a verdict of 

 guilty, and Lord Campbell, who presided at the trial, sentenced one of the firm, the 

 youngest member of the three, to a month's imprisonment, and the remaining two 

 members to three months' incarceration. 



The public still waited for some tidings of the lions, but nothing was heard of them 

 till Parliament met in 1857, when, in reply to a question put to Sir Benjamin Hall. 



