Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-01-05
lCoRREsPoSDEScE OF THE FREE rRIss'l
Letters from England.
No
Westminster Abbey.

Westminster AbbeY.
LONDON, Dec. 5, 1854.
To tn. Editor and Reader, efthe Free Press.
A visit to Westminster Abbey has always
been noted for producing homogeneous i'm
prcssions There is something associated
with that old Gothic pile standing grandly
out from among the modern scenery which
surrounds it, that never grows familiar
something which goes away with you when
YOU leave it, hut which you can neither de-
fine to Yourself nor tell to another. a stran-
ger masses down Whitehall on his way to the
Abbey, stops moment at the Horse Guards
to gaze at the fashionable world streaming
through it's archway into the Parks, looks
up at the fine front Of the Treasury, Is alb
.tractod by the figure. on the dizzy scaffold-
ing of the Victoria Towe r. and all this while
hi. thoughts go on in their usual current
he knows what his impressions are ; he can
tell them when he gets homo through won
der, or admiration, or disappointment, he
preserves his deep conscious ness, and the
wonted tenor Of his associations. But from
the moment that he sees the old buttresses OF
Westminster Abbey, or gets has first glance
along it. black cloi.ters, or draws his first
subdued breath in that sacred " Poets Cor
ner :" he is 80 wholly withdrawn from his or
binary sympathies, from his connection with
present time, from the very existence he was
leading half an hour ago, that when he comes
to himself again, he finds that nothing has
-, Iu n
dream. Hence it comes that our friends who
have anticipated us in visiting the Abbey do
rart flom their usual stvle Of description, and
give us musings instead Indeed it is difficult
te arrest the train Of rcveries which are so
naturally awakened in such a spot, and set
oneself about observing and noting down de-
tails After thrice wandering all over its
precincts, not surely without great interest,
! still found myself lacking in materials for
conveying to you any distinct impression
Having Just returned from fourth pilgrim.
age, undertaken for your sakes, will try
again.
As had formed a very erroneous notion
of what " estmiuster Abbey is, before | saw
it, and perhaps from similar sources you may
have done the same, q short sketch ofits his
tory may assist you to a correct conception
of it's present character.
The history Of this venerable structure
goes back into the traditional period of Eng
lsh Christianity. Shortly after Ethelbcrt
King Of Kent, had in \. d. Goa erected ca
,hcdral church to St. Paul on the present
site of st. Paul's, Sebert, King Of the Eas,
Saxony built church in honor of 1t. Peter
on what was then called the Isle Of Thorns
two miles west of st, Pauls To this was t.
tachcd q monastery endowed for the support
ofan abbot and twelve monks. st. Peter i,
aid e. have descended by night andrper
formed tie ceremony Of conservation himself
Edward the Confcssor greatly enlarged enc
improved the original edihce, and made III
shrine mn object of peculiar Neneratlon to al
the faithful by dcpositiug in it an unusually
valuable collection OF relics even for that age
Part of the Confessor' building remains e
this day. the architecture presenting al