The present view represents one of the most picturesque scenes in the Crypt. Here, surrounded by an arcade, in the very heart of the Cathedral, immediately beneath the centre of the Dome, stands the tomb of England’s greatest naval hero.

The Sarcophagus itself has a strange history. It is usually said to have been designed by Torregiano as a portion of the memorial of Wolsey. “It lay for centuries neglected in Wolsey’s Chapel at Windsor. Just at the time of Nelson’s death, George III. was preparing to make that chapel a cemetery for his family. It was suggested as fit to encase the coffin of Nelson. It is a fine work marred in its bold simplicity by a tawdry coronet, but the master Italian hand is at once recognised by the instructed eye.” So Dean Milman writes.

Recent researches have shown that the Sarcophagus, which is of white and black marble, is the work of Benedetto da Rovezzano, by whom it was commenced in 1524 as part of a stately monument intended by Cardinal Wolsey as a magnificent memorial of himself. It appears that Henry VIII. took possession of the materials prepared for Wolsey’s monument, and that Benedetto was commissioned to transform it into a memorial for the king. The sculptor spent upon it eleven years of labour, but the costly work was never completed. The body of Nelson rests, not in the Sarcophagus, but beneath it.