The Chatham Vase is a stone sculpture commissioned as a memorial to William Pitt the Elder by his wife, Hester, Countess of Chatham

Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham

Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham , 1st Baroness Chatham in her own right, was the wife of William Pitt , 1st Earl of Chatham, who was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768...

. It was originally erected at their house in Burton Pynsent, in 1781, and moved to the grounds of Chevening House in 1934, where it currently resides.

The inscription on the pedestal reads:

Sacred to pure affection

This simple urn

Stands a witness of unceasing grief for him who

Excelling in whatever is so admirable

and adding to the exercise of the sublimest virtues

The sweet charm of refined sentiment and polished wit

By gay social commerce

Rendered beyond comparison happy

The course of domestic life

and bestowed a felicity inexpressible on her

Whose faithful love was blessed in a pure return

That raised her above every other joy but the parental one

and that still shared with him

His generous country with public monuments has eternised his fame

This humble tribute is but to soothe the sorrowing breast of private woe

51.29496°N 0.13383°W