Westminster Abbey

Westminster-Abbey,—on the N. side of Old Palace-yard, about ½ a mile on the R. from Charing-cross.

Westminster-Abbey, or, the Collegiate church of St. Peter, Westminster, is situated on the western side of Westminster-hall. The origin and dedication of this ancient Abbey is involved in much obscurity and fabulous legend. The most credible account is, that it was founded by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who died in 616.

This church and its monastery were afterwards repaired and enlarged by Offa, King of Mercia, but being destroyed by the Danes, they were rebuilt by King Edgar, who endowed them with lands and manors, and in 969 granted them many privileges. Being again ravaged by the Danes, they were rebuilt by Edward the Confessor, in a magnificent manner, and in the form of a cross. The works being finished in 1065, they were consecrated with the greatest pomp and solemnity, and all their ancient rights and privileges, with many additional, were confirmed to them by charter.

William the Norman, further embellished the church, and made it many handsome presents; and at the Christmas following his assumption of the Crown of England, he was solemnly crowned therein, this being the first coronation performed within its walls. The next prince who improved this national building was Henry III., who added to, and much repaired it. These repairs were completed by his successor in 1285, which is the date of the building as it now stands.

About 1502 King Henry VII. began the splendid chapel that is called by his name. This chapel, like that of Henry III., which he pulled down to make room for it, he dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and designed it for a burial place for himself and his posterity.

At the time of the suppression of the religious houses, the Abbey was surrendered to Henry VIII., who dissolved it, and erected it into a college of secular canons, under the government of a dean. Mary restored it to its original conventical state, and Queen Elizabeth finally ejected the monks, and in 1560 erected the Abbey into a college as at present. The western towers were built by Sir Christopher Wren, and many subsequent repairs and embellishments have been executed by our various monarchs.

The Abbey is particularly to be admired for the venerable beauty of its architecture, for the many ancient and modern monuments to the memory of our greatest characters, and for many other curiosities, too numerous to be detailed in a limited work like the present.

The present Collegiate Chapter of Westminster, is the Very Rev. John Ireland, D.D., Dean of Westminster, and Dean of the Order of the Bath, 1816; the Rev. Thomas Causton, D.D., 1799; H.H. Edwards, M.A., 1803; Joseph Allen, D.D., 1806; William, Bishop of Exeter, 1809; W.H.E. Bentinck, M.A., 1809; James Webber, B.D., 1816; Wellva Tournay, D.D., 1818; Andrew Bell, D.C.L., 1819; George Holcombe, D.D., 1822; Edmund Goodenough, D.D., 1826; T. Manners Sutton, M.A., 1827, and Archdeacon Bayley, D.D., 1828, Prebendaries; W.W. Dakins, D.D., Precentor; T.W. Champness, M.A., Richard Webb, M.A., E.G. Beckwith, M.A., H. Butterfield, M.A., R.J. Waters, M.A., Minor Canons.

Westminster Abbey, the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter's, Westminster—the "minster west" of St. Paul's, London, is said, on somewhat legendary authority, to have been founded by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, circ. 616. It is, however, mentioned in a charter of Offa, King of Mercia, A.D. 785, and must have existed before that date. The present abbey was founded by King Edward the Confessor, and dedicated to St. Peter. It was fifteen years in building, and only completed in time to permit of its consecration on Innocents' Day, December 28, 1065, a week before the King died. The church was built in the Norman style, and was regarded as a structure of matchless grandeur and beauty. "Its very size—occupying as it did almost the whole area of the present building—was in itself portentous.... The east end was rounded into an apse. A tower rose in the centre crowned with a cupola of wood. At the western end were erected two smaller towers, with five large bells. The hard strong stones were richly sculptured. The windows were filled with stained glass. The roof was covered with lead. The cloisters, chapter-house, refectory, dormitory, the infirmary with its spacious chapel, if not completed by Edward, were all begun and finished in the next generation on the same plan."¹ But of this goodly edifice hardly anything remains except a few fragments of the substructure. In this abbey our kings and queens have been crowned, from Edward the Confessor to Queen Victoria; and here very many of them are buried, some with and others without monuments.

A man may read a sermon, the best and most passionate that ever man preached, if he shall but enter into the sepulchre of kings.... Where our kings have been crowned, their ancestors lie interred, and they must walk over their grandsire's head to take his crown. There is an acre sown with royal seed, the copy of the greatest change&mdahfrom rich to naked, from cieled roof to arched coffins, from living like gods to die like men.... There the warlike and the peaceful, the fortunate and the miserable, the beloved and the despised princes mingle their dust, and pay down their symbol of mortality; and tell all the world, that when we die our ashes shall be equal to kings, and our accounts easier, and our pains or our crowns shall be less.—Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying, chap. i. sect. 2.

The abbey is 511 feet long (or 403 exclusive of Henry VII.'s Chapel); the transepts, 203 feet across; height of roof, 101 feet 8 inches from the pavement; height of towers, 225 feet. The choir, which extends far west of the transepts, is 155 feet long; the nave, 154 feet. What remains exist of the Confessor's church are the substructure of the Dormitory, or Chapel of the Pyx, and the dark cloister south of the south transept. Of the existing church the oldest parts are Edward the Confessor's Chapel, or Chapel of the Kings, choir, and transepts, which were built by Henry III., and are Early English, or First Pointed, in style. The four bays west of the transept (including the west end of the choir and the first bay of the nave) are of the time of Edward I., and are Early Decorated, or Second Pointed, in style. The remainder of the nave, to the west door, was built in the 15th century, under Sir Richard Whittington as Commissioner. Henry VII.'s Chapel is late Perpendicular, very richly ornamented with panelling, etc. The lower part of the western towers and the façade were fairly well repaired by Sir C. Wren, who had been appointed surveyor in 1698. This work was begun about 1713, and completed about 1723. Nicholas Hawksmoor succeeded Wren, and in 1735 he proposed the raising of the towers, which was completed 1739, in a mixture of Gothic and Italian details.² Sir Gilbert Scott was appointed architect to Westminster Abbey in 1849, and retained that office till his death in 1878. During those years not only did he pay unremitting attention to the maintenance of the fabric, but carried out a continuous though gradual restoration of its ornamental details as well as constructive features. His chief works here, as enumerated by himself, were "two pulpits, three grilles, altar rails, the gable and pinnacles of the south transept, sundry tops of pinnacles, a new altar-table in the sanctuary of the church, and another in Henry VII.'s Chapel." Also "the hardening of the decayed internal surfaces with shellac dissolved in spirits of wine; "the cleansing and renovating the "bronze effigies of Kings and others; "the portals of the north transept, being the so-called Solomon's Porch," and, perhaps the greatest triumph of all, the entire restoration of the beautiful Chapter House.¹ The upper part of the north transept has just (August 1890) been completed by Mr. J. L. Pearson, R.A., the present architect.

The following eminent persons are buried in Westminster Abbey. (The names of those persons buried without monuments or inscribed gravestones are printed in italics.) KINGS AND QUEENS.—King Sebert,—his tomb was certainly here if his body was not; Edward the Confessor; Henry III.; Edward I. and Queen Eleanor; Edward III. and Queen Philippa; Richard II. and his Queen; Henry V.; Henry VII. and his Queen; Anne of Cleves, Queen of Henry VIII.; Edward VI.; Mary I.; Mary, Queen of Scots; Queen Elizabeth; James I. and his Queen; Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I. and mother of Prince Rupert; Charles II.; Anne Hyde, first wife of James II.; William III. and Queen Mary; Queen Anne; George II. and Queen Caroline. EMINENT MODERN STATESMEN.—Lord Chancellor Clarendon; Savile Lord Halifax; Sir William Temple; Craggs; Pulteney, Earl of Bath; the great Lord Chatham; William Pitt; Fox; Canning; Castlereagh; Wilberforce; Palmerston. EMINENT SOLDIERS.—Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke; Sir Francis Vere; Prince Rupert; Monk, Duke of Albemarle; William, Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden; Marshal Wade. The INDIAN STATESMEN.—Sir George Staunton and Lord Lawrence; and the INDIAN GENERALS.—Lord Clyde; Sir James Outram; and Sir George Pollock. EMINENT SEAMEN.—Admiral Blake; Admiral Dean; Sir E. Spragg; Montague, Earl of Sandwich; Sir Cloudesley Shovel; Earl of Dundonald (Lord Cochrane). EMINENT POETS.—Chaucer; Spenser; Beaumont; Ben Jonson; Michael Drayton; Sir Robert Ayton; Sir W. Davenant; Cowley; Denham; Roscommon; Dryden; Prior; Congreve; Addison; Rowe; Gay; Macpherson, who gave "Ossian" to the public; R.B. Sheridan; and Thomas Campbell. EMINENT ANTIQUARIES, HISTORIANS, and PROSE WRITERS generally.—Camden; Spelman; Isaac Casaubon; Archbishop Ussher; Dr. Samuel Johnson; Lord Lytton; Bishop Thirwall; Grote; Macaulay; Charles Dickens; Rennell, the geographer; Thomas Telford and Robert Stephenson, the engineers; Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt, Sir Charles Barry, and Sir Gilbert Scott, the architects; Banks, the sculptor; David Livingstone, the African missionary and traveller; and Sir Rowland Hill, the originator of the penny post. EMINENT MEN OF SCIENCE.—Sir Isaac Newton; John Woodward, the founder of the professorship of geology at Cambridge; Richard Mead; John Hunter, the great anatomist, brought here in 1859 from the vaults of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; Herschel; Sir Charles Lyell. EMINENT ACTORS AND ACTRESSES.—Betterton; the second Mrs. Barry; Mrs. Oldfield; Mrs. Bracegirdle; Mrs. Cibber; Henderson; Samuel Foote; and David Garrick. EMINENT MUSICIANS.—Henry Purcell; Dr. Blow; William Croft; William Shield; Samuel Arnold; Sir Sterndale Bennett; and, greatest name of all in music, Handel. EMINENT DIVINES.—Dr. Barrow; Dr. South. OTHER EMINENT PERSONS.—Mountjoy, Earl of Devonshire, of the time of Queen Elizabeth; the unfortunate Arabella Stuart; the mother of Henry VII.; the mother of Lady Jane Grey; the mother of Lord Darnley; the wife of the Protector Somerset; the wife of the great Lord Burghley; the wife of Sir Robert Cecil; Sir Dudley Carleton, ambassador and letter writer, temp. James I.; the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle (the poet and poetess); the father and mother of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, and his two sons, the profligate second duke, and Francis, killed when a boy in the Civil Wars; the Duchess of Richmond (La Belle Stuart); the second Duke of Ormond, and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, all of whom died in banishment; Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham; Hakluyt, who collected the early voyages which bear his name; Dr. Busby, the schoolmaster; Tom Killigrew and M. St. Evremont, the English and French epicurean wits; Aubrey de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford of the house of Vere; and old Parr, who died (1635), as was very positively affirmed, at the great age of 152.

"Victory or Westminster Abbey" was Nelson's exclamation at Trafalgar; and when we reflect on the many eminent persons buried within its walls, it is indeed an honour. There is, however, some truth in the dying observation of Sir Godfrey Kneller "By God, I will not be buried in Westminster! They do bury fools there."

CHAPELS.—Observe that in each chapel are placed plans of its monuments mounted on cards, which will be found very convenient for reference, as they show at once the name and position of every monument.

I. Chapel of St. Benedict (the first south-east end of Poets' Corner). Observe. Under glass, and on the left in entering, is part of an altar-decoration of the 13th or 14th century, 11 feet long by 3 feet high.

The work is divided into two similar portions; in the centre is a figure, which appears to be intended for Christ, holding the globe, and in the act of blessing; an angel with a palm branch is on each side. The single figure at the left hand of the whole decoration is St. Peter; the figure that should correspond on the right, and all the Scripture subjects on that side, are gone. In the compartments to the left, between the figure of St. Peter and the centre figures, portions of those subjects remain: the fourth is destroyed. These single figures and subjects are worthy of a good Italian artist of the fourteenth century. The remaining decorations were splendid and costly; the small compartments in the architectural enrichments are filled with variously-coloured pieces of glass, inlaid on tinfoil, and have still a brilliant effect. The compartments not occupied by figures were adorned with a deep-blue glass resembling lapis lazuli,with gold lines of foliage executed on it. The smaller spaces and mouldings were enriched with cameos and gems, some of which still remain. That the work was executed in England there can be little doubt.—Eastlake on Oil Painting, p. 176.

This is commonly called the "Chapel of the Deans of the College," several of whom are buried here. The principal tombs are those of Langham, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1376); the Countess of Hertford, sister to the Lord High Admiral Nottingham, so famous for his share in the defeat of the Spanish Armada (d. 1598); and Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, and Lord High Treasurer in the reign of James I. (d. 1645). Here are also the tombs of Archbishop Spottiswoode, Abbot Carlington, and Deans Bill and Goodman.

II. Chapel of St. Edmund.—Contains twenty monuments, of which that on the right on entering, to William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, half-brother to Henry III., and father of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke (d. 1296), is the first in point of time and also the most important; the effigy exhibits the earliest existing instance in this country of the use of enamelled metal for monumental purposes. The other tombs and monuments of importance in this chapel are: tomb of John of Eltham, son of Edward II.; tomb, with two alabaster figures, 20 inches in length, representing William of Windsor and Blanche de la Tour, children of Edward III.; monumental brass (the best in the Abbey), representing Eleanora de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, in her conventual dress as a nun of Barking Abbey (d. 1399); monumental brass of Robert de Waldeby, Archbishop of York (d. 1397); effigy of Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, grand-daughter of Henry VII., and mother of Lady Jane Grey; alabaster statue of Elizabeth Russell, of the Bedford family—foolishly shown for many years as the lady who died by the prick of a needle. Edward Bulwer Lytton—Lord Lytton, the novelist and statesman—was interred here in 1873.

III. Chapel of St. Nicholas.—Contains the monument of Anne, wife of the Protector Somerset; the great Lord Burghley's monument to his wife Mildred, and their daughter Anne; Sir Robert Cecil's monument to his wife; tomb of Lady Jane Clifford; a large altar-tomb, in the area of the chapel, to the father and mother of the celebrated Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the "Steenie" of James I.; Philippa, Duchess of York (d. 1433); under it lies the body of Queen Catherine of Valois, removed here in 1776.

IV. Chapel of the Blessed Virgin, generally known as Henry VII.'s Chapel, is entered by a flight of steps beneath the chantry of Henry V. The entrance gates are of oak, overlaid with brass, gilt, and wrought into various devices the portcullis exhibiting the descent of the founder from the Beaufort family, and the crown and twisted roses the union that took place, on Henry's marriage, of the White Rose of York with the Red Rose of Lancaster. The chapel consists of a central aisle, with five small chapels at the east end, and two side aisles, north and south. The banners and stalls appertain to the Knights of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, an order of merit next in rank in this country to the Most Noble Order of the Garter: the knights were formerly installed in this chapel; and the Dean of Westminster is Dean of the Order. The statues in the architecture of this chapel are commended by Flaxman for "their natural simplicity and grandeur of character and drapery; "and speaking of the fan-vaulting of the roof, Sir Gilbert Scott says it is here seen in "its most perfect beauty."

The principal monuments in Henry VII.'s Chapel are: altar-tomb with effigies of Henry VII. and Queen (in the centre of the chapel), the work of Peter Torrigiano, an Italian sculptor. Lord Bacon calls it "one of the stateliest and daintiest tombs in Europe;" the heads of the King and Queen were originally surmounted with crowns; the enclosure or screen, of earlier date, is of brass, and the supposed work of English artists. In the vault below was placed the body of James I., the coffins of Henry and his Queen being "stripped of their cases and coverings" and removed from their places "to give convenient entry to the enormous bulk of the coffin of James."¹ In the South Aisle.— Altar-tomb, with effigy (by Peter Torrigiano) of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII.; altar-tomb, with effigy of the mother of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots; tomb, with effigy (by Cornelius Cure) of Mary, Queen of Scots, erected by James I., who brought his mother's body from Peterborough Cathedral and buried it here. The painting and gilding of Mary's monument cost £265; the tomb [sarcophagus and effigy] £825 : 10s.; the iron grate £195. Monument to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and his duchess; the duke was assassinated by Felton in 1628; his youngest son, Francis, who was killed in the Civil Wars, and his eldest son, the second and profligate duke, are buried with their father in the vault beneath. Statue of the first wife of Sir Robert Walpole, erected by her son Horace Walpole, the great letter-writer. In the North Aisle.— Tomb, with effigy (by Maximilian Coult) of Queen Elizabeth (the lion-hearted Queen); her coffin is placed on that of her sister, Queen Mary, in a low narrow vault, affording room only for the two coffins; alabaster cradle, with effigy of Sophia, daughter of James I., who died when only three days old. Beneath, in the vault of the Stuarts, was found, on opening it in 1869, "a vast pile of coffins" of all sizes, rudely huddled together; " a chaos of royal mortality," is Dean Stanley's striking expression. On a careful examination there could be identified the coffins of Henry, Prince of Wales; Mary, Queen of Scots, with that of Arabella Stuart upon it; Henry of Oatlands; Mary, Princess of Orange; Prince Rupert; Anne Hyde, first wife of James II.; Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia; ten children of James II. (including his "natural son James Darnley"); and the eighteen children of Queen Anne. James I. and his Queen lie elsewhere—Anne of Denmark, in a lonely vault, and James, as we have seen, in that of Henry VII.¹ Monument to Lodowick Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, and his duchess, of the time of James I.: La Belle Stuart is buried beneath this monument; monument to George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, who restored King Charles II.; sarcophagus of white marble, containing certain bones accidentally discovered (July 1674) in a wooden chest below the stairs of the White Tower, and believed to be the remains of Edward V. and his brother Richard, Duke of York, murdered by order of their uncle, King Richard III.; monuments to Savile, Marquis of Halifax, the statesman and wit (d. 1695);² to Montague, Earl of Halifax, the universal patron of the men of genius of his time (d. 1715); here Addison and Craggs are buried; to Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, the patron of Dryden, with its inscription, "Dubius, sed non Improbus, Vixi," which suggested to Prior his well-known lines—

On Bishop Atterbury's burying the Duke of Buckingham.

"I have no hopes," the Duke he says and dies;
"In sure and certain hope," the Prelate cries:
Of these two learned Peers, I pr'ythee, say man,
Who is the lying knave, the Priest or Layman!
The Duke he stands an infidel confest,
"He's our dear brother," quoth the lordly priest;
The Duke, though knave, still "Brother dear" he cries,
And who can say the reverend Prelate lies?

In the vault at the base of the monument lie the Duke and his family—usually spoken of as deposited in the Ormond Vault. Northeast of Henry VII.'s tomb is the Argyll vault, in which, and not under the Sheffield Chapel as commonly supposed, are deposited the coffins of the great Duke of Argyll and his Duchess, side by side, and on them those of their two daughters (Stanley.) Recumbent figure, by Sir R. Westmacott, of the Duke of Montpensier, brother to Louis Philippe, King of the French. King Charles II., William and Mary, and Queen Anne, are buried in a vault at the east end of the south aisle of the chapel. King George II. and Queen Caroline; Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of George III., his wife Augusta, and three of their children; and William, Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, in a vault in the centre of the nave of the chapel. The remains of King George II. and his Queen lie mingled together, a side having been taken by the King's own direction from each of the coffins for this purpose: the two sides which were withdrawn were seen standing against the wall when the vault was opened for the last time in 1871. In a vault south-west of Henry VII.'s tomb was found, during the search for the coffin of James I., a leaden coffin rudely shaped to the form, with an inscribed plate showing that it contained the undisturbed remains of Elizabeth Claypole, the favourite daughter of Oliver Cromwell. The great Protector himself was interred at the extreme eastern end of Henry VII.'s chapel, but, as is too well known, his corpse was exhumed after the Restoration and treated with every possible contumely.

V. Chapel of St. Paul.—Contains altar-tomb on the right on entering to Lodowick Robsart, Lord Bourchier, standard-bearer to Henry V. at the battle of Agincourt; altar-tomb of Sir Giles Daubeny (Lord-Chamberlain to Henry VII.) and his lady. Stately monument against the wall to Sir Thomas Bromley, Lord-Chancellor of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; he sat as Chancellor at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay. Monuments to Sir Dudley Carleton, ambassador to Spain, from James I.; to Viscount Dorchester, and Francis, Lord Cottington, of the time of Charles I. Colossal portrait-statue of James Watt, the great engineer, by Sir Francis Chantrey, cost £6000; quite out of harmony with the rest of the monuments and out of proportion to the size of the chapel. As the huge mass was being moved across the threshold the arch of the vault beneath gave way, disclosing to the eyes of the astonished workmen rows upon rows of gilded coffins in the vaults beneath; into which, but for the precaution of planking the area, workmen and work must have descended, joining the dead in the chamber of death. The long inscription on the pedestal was written by Lord Brougham. A marble bust (by W.D. Kayworth) bears the inscription, "Underneath is interred Sir Rowland Hill. Born December 8, 1795, died August 27, 1879. Originater of the Penny Postal System." Archbishop Ussher is buried in this chapel; his funeral was conducted with great pomp by command of Cromwell, who bore half the expense of it; the other half fell heavily on his relations.

VI. Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor , also called the Chapel of the, Kings, in many respects the most interesting of all the chapels, occupies the space at the back of the high altar of the Abbey, and is entered from the north Ambulatory by a temporary staircase. The centre of this chapel is taken up by the shrine of King Edward the Confessor, erected in the reign of Henry III., and richly inlaid with mosaic work: of the original Latin inscription only a few letters remain. The wainscot addition at the top was erected in the reign of Mary I. by Abbot Fekenham. Henry IV. was seized with his last illness while performing his devotions at this shrine. No part of this chapel should be overlooked. Observe.—Altar-tomb, with bronze effigy of Henry III. (the effigy of the King very fine); altar-tomb of Edward I., composed of five large slabs of Purbeck marble, and carrying this appropriate inscription:—

"EDWARDVS PRIMVS SCOTORVM MALLEUS—HIC EST."

When the tomb was opened in 1774, the body of the King was discovered almost entire, with a crown of tin gilt upon his head, a sceptre of copper gilt in his right hand, and a sceptre and dove of the same materials in his left ; and in this state he is still lying. Altar-tomb, with effigy of Eleanor, Queen of Edward I.; the figure of the Queen was the work of Master William Torell, goldsmith, i.e. Torelli, an Italian, and is much and deservedly admired for its simplicity and beauty; the original iron-work was the work of a smith, Thomas le Leghtone, living at Leighton Buzzard, in Bedfordshire. On the south side, altar-tomb, with effigy of Edward III. ; the sword and shield of state, carried before the King in France, are placed by the side of the tomb.

Sir Roger in the next place laid his hand upon Edward III.'s sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it, gave us the whole history of the Black Prince; concluding that, in Sir Richard Baker's opinion, Edward III. was one of the greatest princes that ever sate on the English throne.—Addison.

Altar-tomb, with effigy of Philippa, Queen of Edward III. The tomb was the work of Hawkin de Liège, and of John Orchard, a stone-mason of London.¹ Altar-tomb, with effigies of Richard II. and his Queen. Altar-tomb and chantry of Henry V., the hero of Agincourt; the head of the King was of solid silver, and the figure was plated with the same metal; the head was stolen at the Reformation; the helmet, shield, and saddle of the King are still to be seen on a bar above the turrets of the chantry. Gray slab, formerly adorned with a rich brass figure (a few nails are still to be seen), covering the remains of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III., murdered by order of his nephew, Richard II. Small altar-tomb of Margaret of York, infant daughter of Edward IV. Small altar-tomb of Elizabeth Tudor, infant daughter of Henry VII. Brass, much worn, representing John de Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, and Lord High Treasurer of England in the reign of Richard II.; by whose command he was buried in the Chapel of the Kings. At the west end of the Chapel are the two coronation chairs, still used at the coronations of the sovereigns of Great Britain—one containing the famous stone of Scone on which the Scottish Kings were wont to be crowned, and which Edward I. carried away with him as an evidence of his absolute conquest of Scotland: this stone is 26 inches long, 16 inches wide, and 11 inches thick, and is fixed in the bottom of the chair by cramps of iron; it is simply a block of the reddish-gray sandstone of the western coasts of Scotland,² squared and smoothed." In this chair and on this stone every English sovereign from Edward I. to Queen Victoria has been inaugurated" (Stanley). The other chair was made for the coronation of Mary, Queen of William III. Between the chairs are placed the great two-handed sword borne before Edward III. in France.

We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, where my old friend [Sir Roger de Coverley], after having heard that the stone underneath the most ancient of them, which was brought from Scotland, was called Jacob's pillow, sat himself down in the chair; and looking like the figure of an old Gothic king, asked our interpreter what authority they had to say that Jacob had ever been in Scotland? The fellow, instead of returning him an answer, told him that he hoped his honour would pay the forfeit. I could observe Sir Roger a little ruffled at being thus trepanned; but our guide not insisting upon his demand, the knight soon recovered his good humour, and whispered in my ear, that if Will Wimble were with us, and saw those two chairs, it would go hard but he would get a tobacco-stopper out of one or t'other of them.—Addison.

The Screen dividing the chapel from the Choir was erected in the reign of Henry VI.; beneath the cornice runs a series of fourteen sculptures in bas-relief, representing the principal events, real and imaginary, in the life of Edward the Confessor; the pavement of the chapel, much worn, is contemporary with the shrine of the Confessor.

VII. Chapel of St. John the Baptist contains the tombs of several early Abbots of Westminster: Abbot William de Colchester (d. 1420); Abbot Mylling (d. 1492); and Abbot Fascet (d. 1500). The large and stately monument to Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, first cousin and Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Large altar-tomb of Cecil, Earl of Exeter (eldest son of the great Lord Burghley), and his two wives; the vacant space is said to have been intended for the statue of his second countess, but outliving him, she disdainfully refused to be represented on the left side, though she is buried below. Monument to Colonel Popham, one of Cromwell's officers at sea, and the only monument to any of the Parliamentary party suffered to remain in the Abbey at the Restoration of Charles II.; the inscription, however, was turned to the wall; his remains were removed at the same time with those of Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, Blake, and the great Parliamentary leader John Pym, who was buried in this chapel, December 15, 1643, with extraordinary magnificence, the two Houses of Parliament and the Assembly of Divines being in attendance. By Pym's body were laid those of Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Sir William Strode.

VIII. The Chapel of Abbot Islip contains the altar-tomb of Islip himself (d. 1532), and the monument to the great-nephew and eventually heir of Sir Christopher Hatton, Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chancellor. The Hatton vault was purchased by William Pulteney, the celebrated Earl of Bath, who is here interred, and whose monument, by the side of General Wolfe's, is without the chapel, in the aisle of the Abbey. The Wolfe monument was the work of Joseph Wilton, and cost £3000; the bas-relief (in lead, bronzed over) represents the march of the British troops from the river bank to the Heights of Abraham; this portion of the monument is by Capizzoldi.

The East Aisle of the North Transept was formerly divided by screens into the Chapels of St. John, St. Michael, and St. Andrew. Here are two of the most remarkable monuments in the Abbey. One is that of Sir Francis Vere, the great Low Country soldier of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Four knights kneeling, support on their shoulders a table, on which lie the several parts of a complete suit of armour; beneath is the recumbent figure of Vere; the whole full of vigour and admirably executed. The sculptor is unknown. The other is the monument by Roubiliac (one of the last and best of his works) to Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale. The bottom of the monument is represented as throwing open its marble doors, and a sheeted skeleton is seen launching his dart at the lady, who has sunk affrighted into her husband's arms.

The dying woman would do honour to any artist. Her right arm and hand are considered by sculptors as the perfection of fine workmanship. Life seems slowly receding from her tapering fingers and quivering wrist.—Allan Cunningham.

When Roubiliac was erecting this monument, he was found one day by Gayfere, the Abbey mason, standing with his arms folded, and his looks fixed on one of the knightly figures which support the table over the statue of Sir Francis Vere. As Gayfere approached, the enthusiastic Frenchman laid his hand on his arm, pointed to the figure, and said, in a whisper, "Hush! hush! he vil speak presently."¹ The monument to Lord Norris, another of Elizabeth's generals, near the north end, is also a noteworthy work, not less magnificent though less beautiful than that of Sir Francis Vere. The kneeling figures which support the slab are those of Lord Norris's six sons, who had all, but the youngest, died in their father's lifetime; they are praying, he is praising God. Behind the Norris tomb are statues of Mrs. Siddons by Chantrey, and of her brother John Philip Kemble, modelled by Flaxman, and sculptured after his death by Hinchcliffe (removed from the South Transept); both, however, are buried elsewhere. Against the walls are a bust of Sir Humphry Davy, the great chemist, and a medallion of Dr. Thomas Young, the pioneer in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics and author of the undulatory theory of light. On the west side are monuments to Admiral Kempenfelt, lost in the Royal George; Sir John Franklin, the Arctic voyager; and a bust of Dr. Matthew Baillie.

The Choir affords the best point of view for examining the architecture of the Abbey. The view from here is very grand. In the centre, under the tower, is the spot where the sovereigns of England, from the Conqueror downwards, have been crowned. The altar, erected in 1867, from the designs of Sir G.G. Scott, has in the reredos a mosaic of the Last Supper, executed by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, and is altogether a most elaborate and costly work. Observe.—Tomb of Sebert, King of the East Saxons, erected by the abbots and monks of Westminster in 1308. Portrait of Richard II., a contemporary painting lately and skilfully restored by G. Richmond, R.A. Tomb of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, second son of Edward III., and of his countess. Tomb of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke (very fine—one of the best views of it is from the north aisle).

The monuments of Aymer de Valence and Edmund Crouchback are specimens of the magnificence of our sculpture in the reign of the two first Edwards. The loftiness of the work, the number of arches and pinnacles, the lightness of the spires, the richness and profusion of foliage and crockets, the solemn repose of the principal statue, the delicacy of thought in the group of angels bearing the soul, and the tender sentiment of concern variously expressed in the relations ranged in order round the basement, forcibly arrest the attention, and carry the thoughts not only to other ages, but to other states of existence.—Flaxman.

Tomb of Ann of Cleves, one of King Henry VIII.'s six wives.

The rich mosaic pavement is an excellent specimen of the Opus Alexandrinum, and was placed here at the expense of Henry III., in the year 1268. The black and white pavement was laid at the expense of Dr. Busby, master of Westminster School.

The organ is divided and placed above the stalls. It is blown by the action of a gas engine fixed in the centre of the cloisters. The visitor now enters the North Transept, where inscribed stones mark the graves of the rival statesmen, Pitt and Fox.

The mighty chiefs sleep side by side;
Drop upon Fox's grave the tear,
'Twill trickle to his rival's bier.—Sir Walter Scott.

Grattan, Canning, Castlereagh, and Palmerston.—The monuments to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, of the time of Charles I. and II. Roubiliac's monument to Sir Peter Warren, containing his fine figure of Navigation. Rysbrack's monument to Admiral Vernon, who distinguished himself at Carthagena. Bacon's noble monument to the great Lord Chatham, erected by the King and Parliament at a cost of £6000.

          Bacon there
Gives more than female beauty to a stone,
And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips.

Cowper, The Task.

Nollekens's large monument to the three naval captains who fell in Rodney's great victory of April 12, 1782, erected by the King and Parliament, cost £4000. Flaxman's grand portrait-statue of the great Lord Mansfield, with Wisdom on one side, Justice on the other, and behind the figure of a youth, a criminal, by Wisdom delivered up to Justice erected by a private person, who bequeathed £2500 for the purpose. Statue of Sir W. Follett, by Behnes. Small monument, with bust, to Warren Hastings—erected by his widow. Sir R. Westmacott's Mrs. Warren and Child—one of the best of Sir Richard's works. Chantrey's three portrait-statues of Francis Homer, George Canning, and Sir John Malcolm. Statue, by Gibson, of Sir Robert Peel, disguised, by a pedantic anachronism, in a Roman toga; and statue of Lord Palmerston robed as a Knight of the Garter, by Jackson.

On the way to the Nave, and in the North Aisle of the Choir, are tablets to Henry Purcell (d. 1695), and Dr. Blow (d. 1708), two of our greatest English musicians. The Purcell monument was erected at the expense of the wife of Sir Robert Howard, the poet; the inscription is attributed to Dryden. Portrait-statues of Sir Stamford Raffles, by Chantrey; and of Wilberforce, by S. Joseph.

The Nave.—Entering the nave on the right is the monument to Sir John Herschel. A small stone, in the middle of the north aisle (fronting Killigrew's monument), inscribed, "O Rare Ben Jonson," marks the grave of the poet. He is buried here standing on his feet, and the inscription was done, as Aubrey relates, "in a pavement-square of blue marble, about fourteen inches square ... at the charge of Jack Young (afterwards knighted), who, walking here when the grave was covering, gave the fellow eighteenpence to cut it." When the nave was repaved in 1821, the stone was taken up and the present uninteresting square placed in its stead. The original stone was, however, recovered from the stoneyard in the time of Dean Buckland, who caused it to be affixed to the north wall of the nave. In 1849, when Sir Robert Wilson was buried, and again when John Hunter's grave was dug a little to the west, the loose sand in which Ben Jonson was interred gave way, and the poet's skull, with "the red hair still upon it," rolled down; but upon each occasion was reverently replaced.¹ Tom Killigrew, the wit, is buried by the side of Jonson; and his son, who fell at the battle of Almanza in 1707, has a monument immediately opposite. East of Ben Jonson's grave is that of David Livingstone, the African traveller; and near his those of Telford and Stephenson, the engineers, the latter commemorated by an incised brass on the floor, and both by a memorial window just above. In the south aisle are Monument to Sir Palmes Fairborne, with a fine epitaph in verse by Dryden. Monument to Sir William Temple, the statesman and author, his wife, sister-in-law, and child; this was erected pursuant to Temple's will. Monument to Sprat, the poet, and friend of Cowley. (Bishop Atterbury is buried opposite this monument, in a vault which he made for himself when Dean of Westminster, "as far," he says to Pope, "from kings and kaesars as the space will admit of.") Monument, with bust, of Sidney, Earl of Godolphin, chief minister to Queen Anne "during the first nine glorious years of her reign." Monument to Heneage Twysden, who wrote the genealogy of the Bickerstaff family in the Tatler, and fell at the battle of Blaregnies in 1709. Monument to Congreve, the poet, erected at the expense of Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, to whom, for reasons not known or mentioned, he bequeathed a legacy of about £10,000.

When the younger Duchess exposed herself by placing a monument and silly epitaph of her own composing and bad spelling to Congreve in Westminster Abbey, her mother, quoting the words, said "I know not what pleasure she might have had in his company, but I am sure it was no honour."—Horace Walpole.

In the Baptistery, at the west end of the south aisle, are the monuments to Atterbury; to Secretary Craggs (with an epitaph in verse by Pope), and Dean Wilcocks; a seated statue of the poet Wordsworth by Lough, and a bust of Keble, author of the Christian Year, by Woolner. In front of Congreve's monument Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, is buried, "in a very fine Brussells lace head," says her maid; "a Holland shift with a tucker and double ruffles of the same lace; a pair of new kid gloves, and her body wrapped up in a winding-sheet." Hence the allusion of the satirist—

Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke!
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke)—
No, let a charming chintz and Brussells lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead—
And Betty give this cheek a little red.—POPE.

Under the organ-screen—Monuments to Sir Isaac Newton, designed by Kent, and executed by Rysbrack cost—£500; and to Earl Stanhope. Monument to Dr. Mead, the famous physician (d. 1754). Three monuments, by Roubiliac, in three successive windows; to Field-Marshal Wade, whose part in putting down the Rebellion of 1745 is matter of history; to Major-General Fleming; and Lieutenant General Hargrave. The absurd monument, by Nicholas Read, to Rear-Admiral Tyrrell (d. 1766); its common name is "The Pancake Monument." Heaven is represented with clouds and cherubs, the depths of the sea with rocks of coral and madrepore; the admiral is seen ascending into heaven, while Hibernia sits in the sea with her attendants, and points to the spot where the admiral's body was committed to the deep. The upper part of this monument has now been taken away.

Monument of Major-General Stringer Lawrence, erected by the East India Company, "in testimony of their gratitude for his eminent services in the command of their forces on the coast of Coromandel, from 1746 to 1756." Monument, by Flaxman, to Captain Montagu, who fell in Lord Howe's victory of June 1. Monumental group of Lord Clyde, Sir James Outram, and Sir Henry Havelock. Bust of Sir James Outram. Monument to Major André, executed by the Americans as a spy in the year 1780. The monument was erected at the expense of George III., and the figure of Washington on the bas-relief has been renewed with a head, on three different occasions, "the wanton mischief of some schoolboy," says Charles Lamb, "fired, perhaps, with raw notions of transatlantic freedom. The mischief was done," he adds, he is addressing Southey, "about the time that you were a scholar there. Do you know anything about the unfortunate relic?" This sly allusion to the early political principles of the poet caused a temporary cessation of his friendship with the essayist. Sir R. Westmacott's monument to Spencer Perceval, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, shot by Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812, cost £5250. Monuments to William Pitt, cost £6300; and C.J. Fox (there is no inscription); both by Sir Richard Westmacott. Monument, by E.H. Baily, R.A., to the third Lord Holland.

In South Aisle of Choir, recumbent figure of William Thynn, Receiver of the Marches in the reign of Henry VIII. Good bust, by Le Soeur, of Sir Thomas Richardson, Lord Chief Justice in the reign of Charles I. Monument to Thomas Thynn, of Longleat, who was shot in his coach on Sunday, February 12, 1682. [See Haymarket.] The bas-relief contains a representation of the event.

A Welshman bragging of his family, said his father's effigy was set up in Westminster Abbey; being asked whereabouts, he said, "In the same monument with Squire Thynn, for he was his coachman."—Joe Miller's Jests.

Monument to Dr. South, the great preacher (d. 1716); he was a prebendary of this church. Monument, by F. Bird, to Sir Cloudesley Shovel (d. 1707).

Sir Cloudesley Shovel's monument has very often given me great offence. Instead of the brave rough English Admiral, which was the distinguishing character of that plain gallant man, he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of state. The inscription is answerable to the monument; for, instead of celebrating the many remarkable actions he had performed in the service of his country, it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which it was impossible for him to reap any honour.—Addison.

Bird bestowed busts and bas-reliefs on those he decorated, but Sir Cloudesley Shovel's, and other monuments by him, made men of taste dread such honours.—Horace Walpole.

Monuments to Dr. Busby, master of Westminster School (d. 1695); to Sir Godfrey Kneller, with epitaph in verse by Pope; and by T. Banks, R.A., to Dr. Isaac Watts, who is buried in Bunhill Fields. Bust, by Flaxman, of Pasquale de Paoli, the Corsican chief (d. 1807). Monument to Charles Burney, D.D., the Greek scholar (d. 1817); the inscription by Dr. Parr.

Poets Corner is the name given to the eastern angle of the South Transept, from the tombs and honorary monuments of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and several of our greatest poets. [See Poet's Corner.] Tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry (d. 1400); erected in 1555, by Nicholas Brigham, a scholar of Oxford, and himself a poet; Chaucer was originally buried in this spot, Brigham removing his bones to a more honourable tomb. A portrait of Chaucer originally ornamented the back of the tomb. Its loss was in part supplied in the painted glass window above the tomb, erected in 1868, in which are medallions of Chaucer and Gower and scenes from Chaucer's poems. Monument (at south end) to Edmund Spenser, author of The Faërie Queene; executed by Nich. Stone at the expense of "Anne Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery" (the cost was £40), and renewed in 1778 at the instigation of Mason, the poet; Spenser died in King Street, Westminster, "from lack of bread," and was buried here at the expense of Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Essex. Monument to Shakespeare in the west aisle—his bones, as all know, repose at Stratford-on-Avon; erected in the reign of George II. from the designs of Kent. When Pope was asked for an inscription, he wrote—

Thus Britons love me, and preserve my fame,
Free from a Barber's or a Benson's name.

We shall see the sting of this presently: Shakespeare stands like a sentimental dandy. Beaumont rests here in an unrecorded grave. Monument at the south-east end to Michael Drayton, a poet of Queen Elizabeth's reign, erected by the same Anne, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery; the epitaph in verse by Ben Jonson, and very fine. Close to it a tablet to Ben Jonson, erected in the reign of George II., a century after the poet's death: Jonson, as we have seen, was buried in the north aisle of the nave. At the south end, bust of Milton (buried at St. Giles's, Cripplegate), erected in 1737, at the expense of Auditor Benson: "In the inscription," says Dr. Johnson, "Mr. Benson has bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton; "a circumstance that Pope has called attention to in the Dunciad—

On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ.

Next to Milton's is a monument to Butler, author of Hudibras (buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden), erected in 1732 by John Barber, a printer, and Lord Mayor of London. Grave of Sir William Davenant, with the inscription, imitated from Ben Jonson's, "O rare Sir William Davenant." Monument to Cowley (north of Chaucer's), erected at the expense of the second and last Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; the epitaph by Sprat. North of Cowley's monument is a bust of Dryden, erected at the expense of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham.

This Sheffield raised: the sacred dust below
Was Dryden once: the rest who does not know.—POPE.

The bust by Scheemakers is very fine. Honorary monument to Shadwell, the antagonist of Dryden, erected by his son, Sir John Shadwell, in front of Milton's. South of Chaucer's tomb is a monument to John Philips, author of The Splendid Shilling (d. 1708).

When the inscription for the monument of Philips, in which he was said to be uni Miltono secundus, was exhibited to Dr. Sprat, then Dean of Westminster, he refused to admit it; the name of Milton was in his opinion too detestable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion. Atterbury, who succeeded him, being author of the inscription,¹ permitted its reception. "And such has been the change of public opinion," said Dr. Gregory, from whom I heard this account, "that I have seen erected in the church a bust of that man whose name I once knew was considered as a pollution of its walls."—Dr. Johnson.

Monument (near Shadwell's) of Matthew Prior, erected, according to his own desire, "as a last piece of human vanity," by his son. The bust, by A. Coysevox, was a present to Prior from Louis XIV., and the epitaph, written by Dr. Freind, famous for long epitaphs, for which he has been immortalised by Pope—

Freind, for your epitaphs I griev'd,
   Where still so much is said;
One half will never be believ'd,
   The other never read.

Monument (south-east corner of the west aisle) to Nicholas Rowe, author of the tragedy of Jane Shore, erected by his widow; epitaph by Pope. Monument (next to Rowe's) to John Gay, author of The Beggar's Opera; the short and irreverent epitaph, Life is a jest, etc., is his own composition; the verses beneath it are by Pope. Statue of Addison, by Sir R. Westmacott, erected 1809. Close to the statue of Shakespeare is a monument to Thomson, author of The Seasons (buried at Richmond), erected 1762; from the proceeds of a subscription edition of his works. Tablet, by Nollekens, to Oliver Goldsmith (buried in the Temple). The Latin inscription is by Dr. Johnson, who, in reply to a request that he would celebrate the fame of an author in the language in which he wrote, observed, that he never would consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster Abbey with an English inscription. Monument, near the bust of Milton, to Gray, author of An Elegy in a Country Churchyard, who lies in his own churchyard of Stoke-Poges. The verse by Mason, the monument by Bacon, R.A. Monument to Mason, the poet, and biographer of Gray (buried at Aston); the inscription by Bishop Hurd. Monument to Christopher Anstey, author of the New Bath Guide (buried at Bath). Inscribed gravestone over Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Bust of Robert Southey (buried at Keswick), by H. Weekes. Inscribed gravestone over Thomas Campbell, author of The Pleasures of Hope, and statue by W. C. Marshall, A.R.A. Beside him, in an unmarked grave, was laid Henry Cary, the translator of Dante. At the foot of the statue of Addison lies Lord Macaulay. Close by is the bust of William Makepeace Thackeray, the novelist, himself resting at Kensal Green; and below his bust is the grave of Charles Dickens.

The wall of the South Transept has been named by Dean Stanley—following a hint of Fuller's—the Historical Aisle. Here, on the west side, is the monument of Isaac Casaubon (d. 1614), the learned editor of Persius and Polybius.

On Isaac Casaubon's tablet is left the trace of another "candid and simple nature." Izaak Walton ... forty years afterwards, wandering through the South Transept, scratched his well-known monogram on the marble, with the date 1658, earliest of those unhappy inscriptions of names of visitors, which have defaced so many a sacred space in the Abbey. O si sic omnia!"—Dean Stanley, p. 290.

Next to Casaubon's is a monument to William Camden, the great English antiquary (d. 1623). The monument was defaced and the nose broken off the bust when the hearse and effigy of Essex, the Parliamentary general, were destroyed in 1646, by some of the Cavalier party, who lurked at night in the Abbey to be revenged on the dead. The monument was piously restored by the University of Oxford in 1780. "Opposite his friend Camden's monument," but outside the transept, is the grave of Sir Henry Spelman, an antiquary scarcely less famous. At the foot of Camden's monument the Parliamentary historian May was buried, but afterwards exhumed. "Close by the bust of Camden and Casaubon lie, in the same grave, Grote and Thirlwall, both scholars together at the Charter House, both historians of Greece, the philosophic statesman and the judicial theologian."¹

Under a white gravestone in the centre of the South Transept lies Thomas Parr. "Old Parr," who, if we may trust the record on his gravestone, died in 1652, at the great age of one hundred and fifty-two, having lived in the reigns of ten princes, viz. Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII. , Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. Gravestone over the body of Thomas Chiffinch, closet-keeper to Charles II. (d. 1666). Monument to M. St. Evremont, a French epicurean wit, who fled to England to escape a government arrest in his own country (d. 1703). Bust of Dr. Barrow, the great divine (d. 1677). Gravestone over the body of the second wife of Sir Richard Steele, the "Prue" of his correspondence. Monument, by Roubiliac, to John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich (d. 1743); the figure of Eloquence, with her supplicating hand and earnest brow is very masterly. Canova was struck with its beauty; he stood before it full ten minutes, muttered his surprise in his native language, passed on, and returning in a few minutes, said, "That is one of the noblest statues I have seen in England." Monument by Roubiliac (his last work) to George Frederick Handel, the great musician (d. 1759). Monument to Barton Booth (buried at Cowley), the original Cato in Addison's play. Monument to Mrs. Pritchard, the actress, famous in the characters of Lady Macbeth, Zara, and Mrs. Oakley (d. 1768). Inscribed gravestones over the bodies of David Garrick and Samuel Johnson. Monument to David Garrick, by H. Webber, erected at the expense of Albany Wallis, the executor of Garrick.

Taking a turn the other day in the Abbey, I was struck with the affected attitude of a figure which I do not remember to have seen before, and which, upon examination, proved to be a whole-length of the celebrated Mr. Garrick. Though I would not go so far with some good Catholics abroad as to shut players altogether out of consecrated ground, yet I own I was not a little scandalised at the introduction of theatrical airs and gestures into a place set apart to remind us of the saddest realities. Going nearer, I found inscribed under this harlequin figure a farrago of false thoughts and nonsense.—Charles Lamb.

Inscribed gravestones over the remains of James Macpherson, the translator of Ossian; and of William Gifford, the editor of the Quarterly Review.

The painted glass in the Abbey is mostly modern. The older (but not ancient) glass in the north rose window is richer in colour.

The exhibition of the wax figures was discontinued in 1830. They originated in the old custom of making a lively effigy in wax of the deceased in robes of state—a part of the torchlight funeral procession of every great person—and of leaving the effigy over the grave as a kind of temporary monument. Some of these effigies were executed at great cost and with considerable skill. That of La Belle Stuart, one of the last that was set up, was the work of a Mrs. Goldsmith. The effigy of General Monk used to stand by his monument close to Charles II.'s grave, and the showman used to hand Monk's cap round to receive the visitors' contributions.

This here's the cap of General Monk! Sir, please put summut in.—Barham, Ingoldsby Legends.

This kind of exhibition was found so profitable to the Minor Canons and Lay Vicars, that they manufactured effigies (such as those of the great Earl of Chatham and Lord Nelson) to add to the popularity of their series.

Another time he [Dr. Barrow] preached at the Abbey on a holiday. Here I must inform the reader that it is a custom for the servants of the church upon all Holidays, Sundays excepted, betwixt the Sermon and Evening Prayers, to show the Tombs and Effigies of the Kings and Queens in Wax, to the meaner sort of people, who then flock thither from all the corners of the town, and pay their twopence to see The Play of the Dead Volks, as I have heard a Devonshire Clown most improperly call it. These perceiving Dr. Barrow in the pulpit after the hour was past, and fearing to lose that time in hearing which they thought they could more profitably employ in receiving these, I say, became impatient, and caused the organ to be struck up against him, and would not give over playing till they had blow'd him down.—Dr. Pope's Life of Seth Ward, 12mo, 1697, p. 147.

Many of the effigies, for the most part very dilapidated, are preserved in the wainscot presses over the Islip Chapel, and only shown by special permission. Now leave the interior of the Abbey, for the purpose of visiting the Cloisters, walking through St. Margaret's churchyard, and entering Dean's Yard, where, on the left, next the west front of the Abbey, is the Jerusalem Chamber, in which King Henry IV. died.

   King Henry. Doth any name particular belong
Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
   Warwick. 'Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.
   King Henry. Laud be to God!—even there my life must end.
It hath been prophesied to me many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem;
Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land:
But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.

Shakespeare, Second Part of King Henry IV.

It was of old the Abbot's private withdrawing room, with doors leading to the refectory and the garden. After the dissolution of the Abbey and the appropriation of the Chapter House to national purposes, the Jerusalem Chamber became the place where the Dean and Chapter met to discuss their business matters. Occasionally it was used for the reception of distinguished guests and for holiday festivals. Conferences were held in it, and in it met the famous Assembly of Divines.

Out of these walls came the Directory, the Longer and Shorter Catechism, and that famous Confession of Faith which, alone within these Islands, was imposed by law on the whole kingdom; and which alone of all Protestant Confessions, still, in spite of its sternness and narrowness, retains a hold in the minds of its adherents, to which its fervour and its logical coherence in some measure entitle it.—Stanley, p. 467.

Here were held conferences and convocations of bishops and clergy, here met the commissioners for the revision of the Liturgy, and here the Prayer Book received its final form, and here in our own day have sat that band of learned theologians and philologists who were occupied in the grave task of revising the received translation of the Old and New Testaments. Convocation has met here since its renewal in 1854. Another purpose to which the Jerusalem Chamber was formerly applied, and which has invested it with associations very different to those just mentioned, was that of being the occasional depository of the bodies of eminent persons about to be buried in the Abbey. Here lay in solemn state the famous anti-puritan pulpit wit Robert South; Sir Isaac Newton; and for the days before the torchlight procession at dead of night to the grave in Henry VII.'s chapel, Joseph Addison.

The South Cloister may be entered from a door in the south aisle of the nave, or from Dean's Yard. The cloisters were the cemetery of the abbots, the centre or open space that of the monks. In the south cloister are effigies of several of the early abbots. A large blue stone, uninscribed, marks the grave, it is said, of Long Meg of Westminster, a noted virago of the reign of Henry VIII. Note the quaint epitaph in verse, in north cloister, to William Lawrence, by Thomas Randolph. Monument, in east cloister, to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, murdered in the reign of Charles II. In the east cloister is a tablet to the mother of Addison. Monument, in east cloister, to Lieutenant-General Withers, with epitaph by Pope. Monument, in west cloister, to George Vertue, the antiquary and engraver. Medallion monument to Bonnell Thornton, editor of the Connoisseur—inscription by Joseph Warton. In the west cloister is a monument by T. Banks, R.A., to William Woollett, the engraver (buried at St. Pancras). Tablet to Dr. Buchan (west cloister), author of a work on Domestic Medicine (d. 1805). "Under a blue marble stone, against the first pillar in the east ambulatory," Aphra Behn was buried, April 20, 1689, and alongside of her, in fitting companionship, the scurrilous wit Tom Brown. Under stones no longer carrying inscriptions, are buried Henry Lawes, "one who called Milton friend;" Betterton, the great actor; Mrs. Bracegirdle, the beautiful actress; and Samuel Foote, the famous comedian. At the south-east corner of the cloister are remains of the Confessor's buildings, including the Chapel of the Pyx, an interesting specimen of the earliest Anglo-Norman architecture; it was of old a treasury office, and still permission to enter the building can only be obtained through the Lords of the Treasury. A small wooden door, in the south cloister, leads to Ashburnham House, and the richly ornamented doorway in the east cloister to the Chapter House. This is open to the public, and should by all means be visited. [See Ashburnham House; Chapter House; Sanctuary.]

The hours of Divine Service are: Sundays, 8 A.M., 10 A.M., and 3 P.M., also at certain seasons 7 P.M. (in choir or nave); Week-days, 8.30 A.M., 9 A.M. (Westminster School Service), 10 A.M., and 3 P.M. The chapels are open free on Mondays and Tuesdays.

---

¹ Some curious particulars concerning early Westminster Elections will be found in the correspondence of Secretary Vernon, vol. ii. pp. 135–137, and vol. iii. p. 159. Vernon (who sat for Westminster), speaking of the opposition of Sir Harry Colt, observes—"We had a mighty appearance against him in the field, both of horse and foot, who run down his men at a strange rate, and cudgelled him into ditches full of water, and yet we say they were the aggressors." The poll was taken in Covent Garden Church porch for the first time in November 1701. The election generally lasted forty days.

¹ Dean Stanley's Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, p. 25.
² The best (and a very sufficient) guide to the architecture of the Abbey is Sir Gilbert Scott's Gleanings from Westminster Abbey, as in all other matters is Dean Stanley's most interesting Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, 4th edition, 1876. The Misses Bradley, daughters of the present Dean, have compiled a very useful guide.

¹ Scott, Autob. Recollections, p. 287, etc.; Gleanings from Westminster Abbey.

¹ Dean Stanley, p. 559.

¹ See the very interesting "Account of the Search for the Grave of King James I.," printed as an Appendix to Dean Stanley's Historical Memorials, p. 535, etc.
² "I am not sure that the head of Halifax in Westminster Abbey does not give a more lively notion of him than any painting or engraving tha[t] I have seen."—Macaulay.
¹ Devon's Issues of the Exchequer from Henry III. to Henry VI.
² Professor Ramsay, see Stanley, p. 58.

¹ Smith, Nollekens and his Times, vol. ii. p. 90, says that Gayfere related this anecdote to him, with the difference that Roubiliac's eyes were "rivetted to the kneeling figure at the north-west corner of Lord Norris's monument."

¹ Frank Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History, 3d S., vol. ii. pp. 181–189.

¹ Dean Stanley, on the authority of Crull the antiquary (who copied the inscription before the offending words were erased), says it was written by Dr. Smalridge.

¹ Stanley, p. 303.