ish.

The next bay is occupied by a short two-light window (at present
plain), and by =John Gower's Tomb= in the space below. This fine
monument was removed to the east side of the south transept during the
destructive alterations of the early nineteenth century, but had been
worse treated by its friends in 1748, when a large sum was spent on
its "embellishment." Its history, combined with that of the Priors who
erected it, may be summed up in the opening words of the inscription
which was placed in a marble tablet at the back of the tomb to
commemorate the embellishment referred to, not without a touch of
sarcasm, though, of course, unintentional: "Hoc viri inter inclytos
memorandi." Gower died in 1408, eight years after his friend Chaucer.
He had been a liberal benefactor to the Church, and founded a chantry
in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, where he was eventually buried.
The chapel and chantry are no more, but the monument marks the spot,
having been restored in 1894 to its first position. It is in the
Perpendicular style, and consists of an altar-tomb, with a dado,
ornamented by seven panels in front, on which lies the effigy of the
poet, surmounted by a canopy of three ogee arches, with an inner order
of five cusps, and terminating in crocketed pinnacles. There is a
pilaster set angle-wise at each end, banded at the separate divisions
of the monument, and also rising into crocketed pinnacles. There are
similar pinnacles between the arches of the canopy. Behind the canopy
is a screen, divided into open panels of three trefoil-headed lights.
The cornice at the top is modern, and the hands and nose of the figure
are restorations.

The poet is represented lying on his back, with his hands joined in
prayer, and his head resting upon the three volumes on which his fame
depends, the "Speculum Meditantis," "Vox Clamantis," and "Confessio
Amantis." He is vested in a long dark habit, buttoned down to the
feet, after the manner of a cassock, the ordinary dress of an English
gentleman at the time. There is a garland of four roses round his
head, and at his feet a lion couchant. The SS collar adorns the neck,
with a pendant jewel, on which a swan is engraved--the device of
Richard II, to whom Gower was Poet Laureate. On the wall of the
canopy, at the foot of the tomb, there is a sculptured and coloured
representation of the poet's own shield of arms, crest, and helmet. On
the back wall of the recess, above the effigy, t