Westminster Abbey
the most noted church in Great Britain. It stands on low ground on the left bank of the Thames in the district of Westminster. It is believed that an Anglo-Saxon church occupied the site as early as 616. It was destroyed by the Danes but was reerected in 985. A large abbey or house for monks was built here in 1049-65. The present building is really a church, not an abbey. It was begun in the latter half of the thirteenth century. It has been altered and enlarged repeatedly. The chapel of Henry VII was erected by that king in the sixteenth century. The towers were built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1714.
The church has the form of a Latin cross. It is 513 feet in length. The body of the church is 102 feet high. The towers are 225 feet high. The transept is 200 feet in length and 80 feet wide. There is a magnificent organ, rebuilt in 1848. There are over twenty stained glass windows and a number of pieces of fine old tapestry, as well as Venetian glass mosaics. The interior is finished chiefly in rich marble.
Beyond the transept, in a semicircle about the choir, there is a series of eight chapels. The most interesting of these is that of Henry VII, forming the extreme eastern part of the abbey. This chapel is a beautiful structure without and within. Brass-covered gates are decorated with roses in allusion to the union of the houses of York and Lancaster in the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth. The chapel is in itself larger than many a cathedral. It contains over 1,000 statues and figures. Carved choir stalls of dark oak line either wall. Each stall is assigned to a knight of the order of Bath. Each seat is marked with armorial bearings in brass. The sword and banner of the occupant are suspended above the seat. The distinguishing glory of this chapel is a suspended ceiling of fan tracery which droops downward like a festoon of lace. The airiness and richness of this exquisite work are well expressed by Washington Irving: "Stone seems by the cunning labor of the chisel to have been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft, as if by magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb."
Services are held not infrequently in the abbey, but it is celebrated chiefly for its royal burial vaults and monuments innumerable to celebrated men. It is regarded by Englishmen "as their national Walhalla or Temple of Fame." Despite the fact that even children and many persons now long forgotten have been interred here, burial beneath the floor of Westminster is considered the greatest honor that can be shown. There are many memorials on the walls and statues of prominence. Many an illustrious name appears on a plate let into the flagging of the floor. The presence of a memorial is not, however, a certain indication of burial here. Among the names best known to American readers are: William Pitt, Lord Chatham; Canning and Palmerston, noted statesmen; Lord Mansfield, the statesman judge; Robert Peel, the parliamentary reformer; Sir Eyre Coote, commander of the British forces in India; Warren Hastings, the subject of Macaulay's famous essay; Cobden, the free trader; Wilberforce, the emancipator of slaves; Sir Isaac Newton, the student of physics; Charles Darwin, the eminent naturalist; Charles Lyell, the geologist; Fox and the younger Pitt, side by side; and Rowland Hill, the advocate of cheap postage. The sarcophagus of Major Andre may be seen in the south aisle. David Livingstone, the African explorer, and Robert Stephenson, the engineer, lie in the nave. There are lords, earls, dukes, and ladies without number.
The chapel of Henry VII is particularly the burial ground of royalty. Lady Margaret Douglas, Mary, Queen of Scots, Charles II, William and Mary, Queen Anne, Henry VII and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, James I, and George II all rest here.
Interesting and even bewildering as the monuments of royalty are, interest centers in the portion of the south transept known as the Poets' Corner. Of all the spots under the protection of the English flag or held by English-speaking people, this is indeed holy ground. Here are the remains of Grote and Macaulay, the historians; the graves of Chaucer and Spenser; of Goldsmith and Gray and Addison; of Thomson and Southey and Campbell; of Dickens and Thackeray; of Butler and Johnson and Dryden. Handel and Garrick lie here. Wordsworth, Watts, and Wesley are not far away. Shakespeare lies in the Church of Stratford, and Stevenson lies in far off Samoa, but their names and memorials are here. Those in charge of the Abbey have not been narrow. Even our American poets have not been forgotten. The impression produced upon the thoughtful by this marvelous church and place of burial has been stated by Irving as no one else can do it:
The spaciousness and room of this vast edifice produce a profound and mysterious awe. We step cautiously and softly about, as if fearful of disturbing the hallowed silence of the tomb; while every footfall whispers along the walls, and chatters among the sepulchres, making us more sensible of the quiet we have interrupted. We feel that we are surrounded by the congregated bones of the great men of past times, who have filled history with their deeds, and the earth with their renown.