with several of the gentlemen, who had alighted from their coaches, went
up stairs to the lady, who was sick in bed. His lordship repeated the
purport of what he had said below; but the lady Elizabeth refusing her
consent, he fell on his knees, vowing never to rise till his request
was granted. The lady under a sudden surprise fainted away, and lord
Jeffery's pretending to have obtained her consent, ordered the body to
be carried to Mr. Russel's an undertaker in Cheapside, and to be left
there till further orders. In the mean time the Abbey was lighted up,
the ground opened, the choir attending, and the bishop waiting some
hours to no purpose for the corpse. The next day Mr. Charles Dryden
waited on my lord Halifax, and the bishop; and endeavoured to excuse his
mother, by relating the truth. Three days after the undertaker having
received no orders, waited on the lord Jefferys; who pretended it was a
drunken frolic, that he remembered nothing of the matter, and he might
do what he pleased with the body. Upon this, the undertaker waited on
the lady Elizabeth, who desired a day's respite, which was granted. Mr.
Charles Dryden immediately wrote to the lord Jefferys, who returned for
answer, that he knew nothing of the matter, and would be troubled no
more about it. Mr. Dryden hereupon applied again to the lord Halifax,
and the bishop of Rochester, who absolutely refused to do any thing in
the affair.

In this distress, Dr. Garth, who had been Mr. Dryden's intimate friend,
sent for the corpse to the college of physicians, and proposed a
subscription; which succeeding, about three weeks after Mr. Dryden's
decease, Dr. Garth pronounced a fine latin oration over the body, which
was conveyed from the college, attended by a numerous train of coaches
to Westminster-Abbey, but in very great disorder. At last the corpse
arrived at the Abbey, which was all unlighted. No organ played, no
anthem sung; only two of the singing boys preceded the corpse, who sung