king of the East Saxons, having taken part in the foundation of St Paul’s Cathedral, restored or refounded the church at Thorney “to the honour of God and St Peter, on the west side of the City of London” (Stow). A splendid legend relates the coming of St Peter in person to hallow his new church. The sons of Sebert relapsed into idolatry and left the church to the mercy of the Danes. A charter of Offa, king of Mercia (785), deals with the conveyance of certain land to the monastery of St Peter; and King Edgar restored the church, clearly defining by a charter dated 951 (not certainly genuine) the boundary of Westminster, which may be indicated in modern terms as extending from the Marble Arch south to the Thames and east to the City boundary, the former river Fleet. Westminster was a Benedictine foundation. In 1050 Edward the Confessor took up the erection of a magnificent new church, cruciform, with a central and two western towers. Its building continued after his death, but it was consecrated on Childermas Day, 28th December 1065; and on the following “twelfth mass eve” the king died, being buried next day in the church. In 1245 Henry III. set about the rebuilding of the church east of the nave, and at this point it becomes necessary to describe the building as it now appears.
Westminster Abbey is a cruciform structure consisting of nave with aisles, transepts with aisles (but in the south transept the place of the western aisle is occupied by the eastern cloister walk), and choir of polygonal apsidal form, with six chapels (four polygonal) opening north and south of it, and an eastern Lady Chapel, known as Henry The church. VII.’s chapel. There are two western towers, but in the centre a low square tower hardly rises above the pitch of the roof. The main entrance in common use is that in the north transept. The chapter-house, cloisters and other conventual buildings and remains lie to the south. The total length of the church (exterior) is 531 ft. and of the transepts 203 ft. in all. The breadth of the nave without the aisles is 38 ft. 7 in. and its height close upon 102 ft. These dimensions are very slightly lessened in the choir. Without, viewed from the open Parliament Square to the north, the beautiful proportions of the building arc readily realized, but it is somewhat dwarfed by the absence of a central tower and by the vast adjacent pile of the Houses of Parliament. From this point (considered as a building merely) it appears only as a secondary unit in a magnificent group. Seen from the west, however, it is the dominant unit, but here it is impossible to overlook the imperfect conception of the “Gothic humour” (as he himself termed it) manifested by Wren, from whose designs the western towers were completed in 1740. The north front, called Solomon’s Porch from a former porch over the main entrance, is from the designs of Sir G. G. Scott, considerably altered by J. L. Pearson.
Within, the Abbey is a superb example of the pointed style. The body of the church has a remarkable appearance of uniformity, because, although the building of the new nave was continued with intermissions from the 14th century until Tudor times, the broad design of the Early English work in the eastern part of the church was carried on throughout. The choir, with its unusual form and radiating chapels, plainly follows French models, but the name of the architect is lost. Exquisite ornament is seen in the triforium arcade, and between some of the arches in the transept are figures, especially finely carved, though much mutilated, known as the censing angels. Henry VII.’s Chapel replaces an earlier Lady Chapel, and is the most remarkable building of its period. It coniprises a nave with aisles, and an apsidal eastward end formed of five small radiating chapels. Both within and without it is ornamented with an extraordinary wealth and minuteness of detail. A splendid series of carved oak stalls lines each side of the nave and above them hang the banners of the Knights of the Bath, of whom this was the place of installation when the Order was reconstituted in 1725. The fan-traceried roof, with its carved stone pendants, is the most exquisite architectural feature of the chapel.
The choir stalls in the body of the church are modern, as is the organ, a fine instrument with an “echo” attachment, electrically connected, in the triforium of the south transept. The reredos is by Sir G. G. Scott, with mosaic by Salviati. In Abbot Islip’s chapel there is a series of effigies in wax, representing monarchs and others. The earliest, which is well preserved, is of Charles II., but remnants of older figures survive. Some of the effigies were carried in funeral processions according to custom, but this was not done later than 1735. There are, however, figures of Lord Chatham and Nelson, set up by the officials who received the fees formerly paid by visitors to the exhibition.
But the peculiar fame of the Abbey lies not in its architecture nor in its connexion with the metropolis alone, but in the fact that it has long been the place of the coronation of sovereigns and the burial-place of many of them and of their greatest subjects. The original reason for this was the reverence attaching to the memory of the Confessor, whose shrine stands in the central chapel behind the high altar. The Norman kings were ready to do honour to his name. From William the Conqueror onward every sovereign has been crowned here excepting Edward V. The coronation chairs stand in the Confessor’s chapel. Ihat used by the sovereign dates from the time of Edward I., and contains beneath its seat the stone of Scone, or stone of destiny, on which the Celtic kings were crowned. It is of Scottish origin, but tradition identifies it with Jacob’s pillow at Bethel. Here also are kept the sword and shield of Edward III., still used in the coronation ceremony. The second chair was made for Mary consort of William III. Subsequent to the Conquest many kings and queens were buried here, from Henry III. to George II. Not all the graves are marked, but of those which are the tomb of Henry VII. and his queen, Elizabeth of York, the central object in his own chapel, is the finest. The splendid recumbent effigies in bronze of Italian workmanship, rest upon a tomb of black marble, and the whole is enclosed in a magnificent shrine of wrought brass. Monuments, tombs, busts and memorials crowd the choir, its chapels and the transepts, nor is the nave wholly free of them. All but the minority of the Gothic period (among which the canopied tombs of Edmund Crouchback and Aymer de Valence, in the sanctuary, are notable) appear incongruous in a Gothic setting. Many of the memorials are not worthy of their position as works of art, nor are the subjects they commemorate always worthy to lie here, for the high honour of burial in the Abbey was not always so conscientiously guarded as now. Eliminating these considerations, however, a wonderful range of sculptural art is found. A part of the south transept is famed under the name of the Poet’s Corner. The north transept contains many monuments to statesmen.
The monastery was dissolved in 1539, and Westminster was then
erected into a bishopric, but only one prelate, Thomas Thurleby,
held the office of bishop. In 1553 Mary again appointed an
abbot, but Elizabeth reinstated the dean, with twelve prebendaries.
Of the conventual buildings, the cloisters are of
the 13th and 14th centuries. On the south side of the
Conventual
and other
buildings.
southern walk remains of a wall of the refectory are seen from
without. From the eastern walk a porch gives entry to the chanter
house and the chapel of the Pyx. The first is of the time of Henry III.,
a fine octagonal building, its vaulted roof supported by a
slender clustered column of marble. It was largely restored by Sir
Gilbert Scott. There are mural paintings of the 14th and 15th
centuries. The chapel or chamber of the Pyx is part of the undercroft
of the original dormitory, and is early Norman work of the
Confessor’s time. It was used as a treasury for the regalia and
other articles of value in early times, and here were kept the standard
coins of the realm used in the trial of the pyx now carried out at
the Mint. The undercroft is divided into compartments by walls
and part of it appears in the gymnasium of Westminster School.
Above It is now the chapter library. To the south-east lies the
picturesque Little Cloister, with its court and fountain, surrounded
by residences of canons and officials. Near it are slight ruins of tha
monastic infirmary chapel of St Catherine. West of the main
cloisters are the Deanery, Jerusalem chamber and College Hall,
the building surrounding a small court and dating in fabric mainly
from the 14th century. This was the Abbot’s house. Its most
famous portion is the Jerusalem chamber, believed to be named
from the former tapestries on its walls, representing the holy city.
Here died Henry IV. in 1413, as set forth in Shakespeare’s Henry IV.
(Pt. ii., Act iv. Sc. 4). It is a beautiful room, with open timber
roof, windows partly of stained glass, and walls tapestried and
panelled. The College Hall, adjoining it, is of similar construction,
but plainly fitted in the common manner of a refectory, with a dais
for the high table at the north and a gallery at the south. It is
now the dining-hall of Westminster School.
Westminster School.—St Peter’s College, commonly called Westminster School, is one of the most ancient and eminent public schools in England, and the only school of such standing still occupying its original site in London. A school was maintained by the monks from very early times. Henry VIII. took steps to raise it in importance, but the school owes its present eminence to Queen Elizabeth, who is commemorated as the foundress at a Latin commemoration service held periodically in the Abbey, where, moreover, the daily school service is held. The school buildings lie east of the conventual buildings, surrounding Little Dean’s Yard, which, like the cloisters, communicates with Dean’s Yard, in which are the picturesque houses of the headmaster, canons of the Abbey, and others. The buildings are modern or large modernized. The Great Schoolroom
