This chapter on the _geography_ of the Abbey, as I call it, has nothing
to do with the stories which begin in the next chapter, and the only
reason that I have written it at all is this. In the days when I first
heard many of the stories which I am going to tell you now, they were
told to us by Dean Stanley in the Abbey. As we walked about with him
he explained to us what part of the church we were in, and pointed out
the tomb or monument of the man, or woman, or child about whom he was
telling us. But some of you may read this little book before you have
ever been to Westminster Abbey, and others may have been there, but may
not know the names of the different parts of the church, or where any
particular monument or tomb is.
So, instead of trying to explain at the beginning of every story
whereabouts we are supposed to be standing, I am putting all such
explanations in this chapter; and this will, I hope, help you to find
your way about in the Abbey for yourselves. If you only want to hear
the stories, you must miss this chapter and go on to the next one.
Just as we have maps to understand the geography of countries, so we
have maps, which are called _plans_, to understand the geography of
churches and houses, and the drawing you see on the opposite page is
a map or plan of the inside of Westminster Abbey. The picture at the
beginning of this book is a view of the outside.
We will now suppose we have just come into the Abbey at the great
west door, the door between the two towers (see frontispiece). The
name is marked on the plan.[3] We should then be standing in what is
called the nave, and right in front of us and through those iron gates
underneath the organ is the choir. That is where service is held every
morning and every afternoon, and where all the Westminster School boys
sit on Sundays when they come to church, for as Westminster school has
no chapel of its own, the boys have all their services in the Abbey.
Through the choir gates you can see the communion table in front of
you, and behind that, again, are all the chapels where the kings and
queens are buried. The nave and transepts are full of the monuments and
graves of great men. The numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., on the plan mark those
about which you will find stories later on.
[Illustration: PLAN OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.]
A. Chapel of Edward Confessor.
B. „ St. Benedict.
C. „ St. Edmund.
D. „ St. Nicholas.
E. Henry VII. Chapel.
F. Chapel of St. Paul.
G. „ St. John Baptist.
H. „ St. Erasmus.
I. „ Abbot Islip.
J. „ St. John Evangelist.
K. „ St. Michael.
L. „ St. Andrew.
1. Lord Shaftesbury.
2. General Gordon.
3. Edward Mansell.
4. Edward de Carteret.
5. Sir Isaac Newton.
6. Lord Lawrence.
7. Sir James Outram.
8. David Livingstone.
9. Henry Fawcett.
10. Sir John Franklin.
11. Geoffrey Chaucer.
12. Alfred Tennyson.
13. Shakespeare.
14. Handel.
15. Lord Beaconsfield.
16. George Canning.
17. Earl Canning.
18. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.
19. Lord Chatham and William Pitt.
20. Wilberforce.
21. Henry III.
22. Queen Eleanor.
23. Edward I.
24. Edward III.
25. Richard II.
26. Henry V.
27. Henry VII. and Queen.
28. Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary Tudor.
29. Mary Queen of Scots.
30. Oliver Cromwell.
31. Edward VI.
32. Dean Stanley.
And now, if you look at the plan, you will see exactly where
everything is. The whole Abbey is built on a piece of land which has
the shape of a cross laid upon the ground. The nave and choir represent
the stem of the cross, and the two transepts form the two arms.
In the part of the choir beyond the communion table are the chapels.
Altogether there are eleven, and they are arranged like a wreath round
the shrine of Edward the Confessor. They are marked on the plan by
the letters A, B, C, etc., and their names you will find on the plan,
beginning with A, which is the Chapel of Edward the Confessor.
One last thing I must explain before we begin the stories, and that
is--how this great church came to be called an Abbey, and not a
Cathedral. It is not at all difficult to remember when you have once
been told.
The Church of St. Peter did not stand, as you may have supposed, all by
itself on Thorney Isle, but was only one part of a mass of buildings
called the Monastery of St. Peter.
A monastery, as you very likely already know, was a kind of college
for monks. Here they lived under the rule of an abbot; and the church
belonging to the monastery--for every monastery had a church, as well
as a school and hospital or infirmary, belonging to it--was called an
Abbey.
In early days the life of the monks was a very busy one. They did
all the rough work, such as cooking, and cleaning pots and pans; for
although many of them had been great soldiers or great nobles, they
did not think any work done for the monastery was beneath them. They
ploughed the land and planted seeds; they cut down trees for firewood;
they nursed the sick; they fed and looked after the poor who lived
round about them; and they taught in the school, and watched over the
boys who were sent there to be educated.
Many boys--not only those who intended to become monks when they grew
up, but those also who were to go out into the world, or become
soldiers--went to the monastery schools to be taught. Here the sons of
great nobles sat to learn their lessons side by side with the children
of the poorest people, who were allowed to come and have as good an
education as the rich without paying any school fees. The schools were
open to all who wished to learn.
Of course, Scripture was the chief thing that they were taught, but
the monks did not think that alone was enough, and the boys often
learnt, besides reading and writing, grammar, poetry, astronomy, and
arithmetic. Latin many of the monks talked almost as easily as their
own language, and very often music and painting were added to all this.
In the cloisters, or covered walks belonging to the monastery, the
boys learned their lessons, always with a master near by, and sitting
one behind another, so that no signals or jokes were possible. And
very hard it must have been to keep their attention on their work in
summer time when, if they looked up, they could see through the open
archways the sun shining on the grass in the centre of the cloisters,
and inviting them to come and play there. Something was always going
on in the cloisters. Sometimes the schoolboys were tempted to waste
their time watching the monks shaving. Once a fortnight in summer,
and once in three weeks in winter, the monks came out here with hot
water and soap, and the important business of shaving went on, while
on “Saturdays the heads and feet of the brethren were duly washed.”
If while all these things were going on the abbot appeared, every one
stood up and bowed, and the lessons and the shaving and the washing
stopped until he had passed by.
Perhaps the most important part of every monastery was the library, and
an abbot who cared much for the monastery over which he ruled tried
to collect and preserve and buy as many books as he could. In those
days printing was not invented, and so every book of which many copies
were wanted had to be written out by the monks. And this they did in
a most wonderful way, copying them, so we are told,[4] “on parchment
of extreme fineness prepared by their own hands,” and ornamenting them
with “the most delicate miniatures and paintings.” The monks at that
time loved their books more than anything else, and there was a saying
among them that a cloister without books was like a fortress without
an arsenal. Often they took long and difficult journeys to see or to
copy the books in other monasteries. “Our books,” said a monk, “are
our delight and our wealth in time of peace, ... our food when we are
hungry, and our medicine when we are sick.”
And now, having told you a little about the life of the monks in those
far-off days, we must come back to these buildings on Thorney Isle,
which as I have said were called the Monastery of St. Peter. It is
not known when this particular monastery was first founded; but it is
said that St. Dunstan, who lived in the reign of King Edwy, found
there some half-ruined buildings. He repaired them, and then brought
twelve monks to live in company with him. But probably the Danes,
who were often invading England at that time, destroyed this little
monastery, for when Edward the Confessor came to the throne, many years
afterwards, it had almost, if not quite, disappeared; and when he
rebuilt it he added this great church of St. Peter, about which I told
you in the first chapter.
There is a pretty story told of how this came about. An old monk was
one day lying asleep, and in his sleep he was commanded by St. Peter,
who appeared visibly to him, to acquaint the king that it was his
pleasure he should restore the monastery. “There is,” said the apostle,
“a place of mine in the west part of London which I choose and love.
The name of the place is Thorney.... There let the king by my command
make a dwelling of monks, stately build and amply endow; it shall be
no less than the House of God, and the Gates of Heaven.” When he woke
up, the old monk went to the king and told him his vision. Upon hearing
it Edward journeyed to “the west part of London;” there he found
Thorney Isle, and there he built the monastery and church, which he
called after the apostle.
And now at last we have finished all the explanations. In the first
chapter I told you how the Abbey came to be built, and in this one I
have shown you how to find your way about it. In the next I shall begin
telling you the stories, the first being about Lord Shaftesbury, whose
monument is in the nave, where you see No. 1 on the plan.