Memorial Cross to Dante Gabriel Rossetti., Birchington, Kent

MEMORIAL CROSS TO THE LATE DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI - The Memorial Cross which is to be placed over the grave of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, at Birchington, is about 6 feet in height, and is in the form of an ancient Irish cross. The face is covered with carved work. On the upper portion the Fall of Man is symbolised by a serpent with the head of a woman— that is, the deceiver named by the Talmud as Adam's first bride. The subject was one familiar to the dead poet, who says:

Of Adam's first wife, Lilitb, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve),
That, ere the snake’s, her sweet tongue could deceive.
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young, while the earth is old,
And subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright net she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

Below is a panel in which Dante and Beatrice stand face to face reunited; heavenly love having accomplished that poet's desire that his “spirit should go hence to behold the glory of its lady, of that blessed Beatrice who now gazeth continually on His countenance who is blessed throughout all ages." The next panel shows an ox, intended as a symbol of St. Luke, while underneath is represented the death of the Evangelist. There is a certain fitness in the choice of this saint, for he was one who dwelt in Rossetti's mind, and of whom he said:

Give honour unto Luke, Evangelist;
For he it was (the aged legends say)
Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray.
Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist
Of devious symbols; but soon having wist
How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day,
Are symbols also in some deeper way,
She looked through these to God and was God's priest.
And if, past noon, her toil began to irk,
And she sought talismans, and turned in vain
To soulless self-reflections of man's skill, —
Yet now, in this the twilight, she might still
Kneel in the latter grass to pray again,
Ere the night cometh and she may not work.

 Rossetti's dealing with the subject has no doubt suggested to Mr. Madox Brown this choice of subject, which is at once appropriate and congenial to his artistic temperament. The lower panel is filled by a beautiful Runic ornament, in which the initials " D. G. R." are dexterously interwoven. The memorial is from the designs of Mr. Ford Madox Brown, and has been executed in Portland stone by Messrs. Patteson, of Manchester. On the block which supports the cross are two inscriptions. The one at the front is as follows: — "Hero sleeps Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, honoured under the name of Dante Gabriel Rossetti among painters as a painter, and among poets as a poet. Born in London, of parentage mainly Italian, 12th May, 1828 ; died at Birchington, 9th April, 1882.'" The inscription on the other side is in this form: — "This cruciform monument, bespoken by Dante Rossetti's mother, was designed by his lifelong friend, Ford Madox Brown ; executed by J. and H. Patteson ; and erected by his brother William and sister Christina Rossetti."