CARDINAL WOLSEY’S BONES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 150, 24 March 1928, Page 22

CARDINAL WOLSEY’S BONES

fy Leicester Abbey, where Cardinal Wolsey'told tha abbot lie had "come to lay his bones” when he bado farewell to all his greatness, is about to undergo transforiulition. For many yeait? the Abbey grounds have been used as a farm, but now they have been acquired by the Leicester Corporation, ana will be laid out as gardens and for recreation. Wolsey’s lx>dy was laid in an unknown grave, am! it is believed that in th 6 excaviilions necessary to adapt tho grounds to their new use some trace of it may be found, biit as there is no record of any of tho Cardinal’s possessions being buried with him, the search iuav end in failure. One fact about Wolsey is probably not widely known (remarks the “Sunday Times”). When he was at the height of his power he employed air Italian sculptor to make a magnificent sarcophagus beneath which he should lie. Leicester monks laid him to rest in plain earth, and Henry VIII sequestrated the sarcophagus with the rest of the Cardinal’s vast possessions. The sarcophagus remained . Government property and idle until 1806, when it was used to cover the body of Nelson after his remains were brought; from Trafalgar. The man who said that England expected every man to do his duty, and led them in so doing, rests under the covering prepared for 'the man who was led away and ruined by overweening ambition.