John Dryden was born on 9 August 1631 into a puritan family at Aldwincle, Northamptonshire. He was one of fourteen children of Erasmus Dryden and his wife Mary (Pickering). He went to Westminster ...

The epitaph intended for Dryden's bust was: This Sheffield raised, the sacred dust below was Dryden once: the rest who does not know? The surround of the monument was taken down in 1848. Dryden was ...