St. George's does to Windsor. It is connected with many of the legends of that picturesque age. Here, while he was attending mass with Leofric of Mercia and his wife, the famous Godiva, Edward the Confessor announced that he saw the Saviour appear as a luminous child. By the wayside between the palace and the chapel sate Michael, the crippled Irishman, who assured Hugolin, the chamberlain, that St. Peter had promised his cure if the king would himself bear him on his shoulders to the church, upon which Edward bore him to the altar, where he was received by Godric, the sacristan, and walked away whole.

Whilst he was an exile Edward had vowed that if he returned to England in safety he would make a pilgrimage to Rome. This promise, after his coronation, he was most anxious to perform, but his nobles refused to let him go, and the pope (Leo IX.) released him from his vow, on condition of his founding or restoring a church in honour of St. Peter. Then, to an ancient hermit near Worcester, St. Peter appeared, "bright and beautiful, like to a clerk," and bade him tell the king that the church to which he must devote himself, and where he must establish a Benedictine monastery, was no other than the ancient minster of Thorney, which he knew so well.

Edward, henceforth devoting a tenth of his whole substance to the work, destroyed the old church, and rebuilt it from the foundation, as the "Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster." It was the first cruciform church erected in England,* and was of immense size for the age, covering the whole of the ground occupied by the present building. The foundation was laid in 1049, and the

"Novo compositionis genere."-Matthew Paris.

church was consecrated December 28, 1065, eight days before the death of the king. Of this church and monastery of the Confessor nothing remains now but the Chapel of the Pyx, the lower part of the Refectory underlying the Westminster schoolroom, part of the Dormitory, and the whole of the lower walls of the South Cloister; but the Bayeux tapestry still shows us in outline the church of the Confessor as it existed in its glory.

The second founder of the Abbey was Henry III., who pulled down most of the Confessor's work, and from 1245 to 1272 devoted himself to rebuilding. The material he employed was first the green sandstone, which has given the name of God-stone to the place in Surrey whence it came, and afterwards Caen stone. The portions which. remain to us from his time are the Confessor's Chapel, the side aisles and their chapels, and the choir and transepts. The work of Henry was continued by his son Edward I., who built the eastern portion of the nave, and it was carried on by different abbots till the great west window was erected by Abbot Estney in 1498. Meantime, Abbot Littlington, in 1380, had added the College Hall, the Abbot's House, Jerusalem Chamber, and part of the cloisters. In 1502 Henry VII. pulled down the Lady Chapel, and built his beautiful Perpendicular chapel instead. The western towers were only completed from designs of Sir Christopher Wren (1714), under whom much of the exterior was refaced with Oxfordshire stone, and its original details mercilessly defaced and pared down.

"The Abbey Church formerly arose a magnificent apex to a royal palace, surrounded by its own greater and lesser sanctuaries and almonries; its bell-towers, chapels, prisons, gate-houses, boundary

walls, and a train of other buildings, of which at the present day we can scarcely form an idea. In addition to all the land around it, extending from the Thames to Oxford Street, and from Vauxhall Bridge Road to the church of St. Mary-le-Strand, the Abbey possessed 97 towns and villages, 17 hamlets, and 216 manors."-Bardwell's Ancient and Modern Westminster.

At the dissolution Abbot Benson was rewarded for his facile resignation by being made dean of the college which was established in place of the monastery. In 1541 a bishopric of Westminster was formed, with Middlesex as a diocese, but it was of short existence, for Mary refounded the monastery, and Elizabeth turned her attention entirely to the college, which she re-established under a dean and twelve secular canons.

No one can understand Westminster Abbey, and few can realise its beauties, in a single visit. Too many tombs will produce the same satiety as too many pictures. There can be no advantage, and there will be less pleasure, in filling the brain with a hopeless jumble in which kings and statesmen, warriors, ecclesiastics, and poets, are tossing about together. Even those who give the shortest time to their London sight-seeing should not pay less than three visits to the Abbey. On the first, unwearied by detail, let them have the luxury of enjoying the architectural beauties. of the place, with a general view of the interior, the chapterhouse, cloisters, and their monastic surroundings. On the second let them study the glorious chapels which surround the choir, and which contain nearly all the tombs of antiquarian or artistic interest. On the third let them labour as far as they can through the mass of monuments which crowd the transepts and nave, which are often mere cenotaphs, and which almost always derive their only interest

These three visits may

from those they commemorate.
enable visitors to see Westminster Abbey, but it will require
many more to know it-visits at all hours of the day to
drink in the glories of the light and shadow in the one
great church of England which retains its beautiful ancient
colouring undestroyed by so-called "restoration "-visits
employed in learning the way by which the minster
has grown, arch upon arch, and monument upon monu-
ment; and other visits given to studying the epitaphs on
the tombs, and considering the reminiscences they awaken.
"Oft let me range the gloomy aisles alone—
Sad luxury! to vulgar minds unknown,

Along the walls where speaking marbles show
What worthies form the hallow'd mould below;
Proud names, who once the reins of empires held ;
In arms who triumph'd, or in arts excell'd;
Chiefs, graced with scars, and prodigal of blood;
Stern patriots, who for sacred freedom stood;
Just men, by whom impartial laws were given;
And saints, who taught and led the way to heaven."

Tickell.

In approaching the Abbey from Parliament Street, the first portion seen is the richly decorated buttresses of Henry VII.'s Chapel. Then we emerge into the open square which still bears the name of Broad Sanctuary, and have the whole building rising before us.

"That antique pile behold,
Where royal heads receive the sacred gold:

It gives them crowns, and does their ashes keep;
There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep,
Making the circle of their reign complete,
These suns of empire, where they rise they set."

Waller.

The outline of the Abbey is beautifully varied and broken by St. Margaret's Church, which is not only

deeply interesting in itself, but is invaluable as presenting the greater edifice behind it in its true proportions. Facing us is the north transept, the front of which, with its statueless niches, beautiful rose-window, and its great triple entrance-imitated from French cathedrals-sometimes called "Solomon's Porch," is the richest part of the building externally, and a splendid example of the Pointed

style. Beyond Wren's poor towers is the low line of grey wall which indicates the Jerusalem Chamber.

Facing the Abbey, on the left, are Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament, which occupy the site of the ancient palace of our sovereigns. Leaving these and St. Margaret's for a later chapter, let us proceed at once to enter the Abbey.