'If Statues Spoke'

Cartoon style engraving by the artist Frank Reynolds of Thomas Carlyles statue surrounded by traffic.  The illustration appeared in Punch, or The London Charivari - September 11, 1929.  Detail - IF STATUES SPOKE / THE SAGE OF CHELSEA. "FORTY MILLIONS, MOSTLY MAKERS OF NOISE." / [A statue to CARLYLE was unveiled on September 3rd, at Ecclefechan, which is on the Great North Road.]   Thomas Carlyle had always detested noise and during his last illness Queen Victoria ordered the streets of Chelsea were to be covered in straw to deaden the noise of carriages.  He died on 5 February 1881, and despite the offer of a burial at Westminster Abbey, his instructions that his coffin was to be taken to Ecclefechan were carried out.