Edinburgh.
_Fees at Westminster Abbey._--The custom of taking fees at Westminster
Abbey is of very ancient date, and was always unpopular. Shirley alludes to
it in his pleasant comedy called _The Bird in a Cage_, when Bonomico, a
mountebank, observes--
"I talk as glib,
Methinks, as he that _farms the monuments_."
The dean and chapter, however, in those days were more moderate in their
demands, for the price of admission was but one penny to the whole.
"This grant was made to the chapter in 1597, on condition that,
receiving the benefit of the exhibition of the monuments, they should
keep the same monuments always clean," &c.--See _Reply from the Dean
and Chapter to an Order of the House of Commons_, 1827.