The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-05-10
WESTMINSTER
The Burial Place of England's
Heroes.
Description Of the Abbey and ito
Associates.
'Warenton' in the Boston Courier.

noble IN architecture, rich In Old ass
Citations, black with age and the smoke
centuries, Westminster Abbey stands lii
some old monitor of by gone days station
ed here to watch the progress of the bus
world
What if I had known it since | frs
began to tOddle; what if / had lived lon
under the very shadows of its towers
what if had looked upon it and in it fC
many day; what if | had rambled abou
its hooks and and quiet places time out o
mind, until l knew by heart every gravel
it and every tomb from that of old Kim
Sebert to Rowland Hill, NAV | not thi
bright Spring afternoon saunter once NOR
IN the old haunts, through crows of war
riors and through walks of Kings?"
Through an ugly black door stucl
askance in the beautiful entrance unde
ISolomon's porch, as though it had wander
ed there by mistake long ago, and neve
being able to find it's way out again ha,
grown old and wrinkled and unsightlv
In at this miserable little approach, whcr,
strike my hat against the framework, an(
catch pocket in a door-knob, and stant
gazing through u purple-ble mist at wha
might be great wheel hung high in the
lheavens-this is the Rose Window.
stand impressed with the beauties of tn,
gothic architecture, at the tiers of graceful
arches rising one above another, at thu
rows of columns and 'the long drawn
aisles;' | see once more the countless
works of art, grave memorials of the noble
| dead, the relics of former greatness, the
remnants of departed glory, and l fee
| that above all and around all a calm anC
peaceful air as of the long lines of noble
ancestry the families of royalty, the many
men of genius, aye, even of the old alb
bolts, the bishops, the monks, who have
risen and fallen on the tide of time and
now within those sacred walls be buried
For this grand old pile is the treasurehouse
of nations genius, the stronghold of a
nations glory; there is not &
nook in it that is not followed by his
tory, The cloisters bring back recol-
leCtions of the cowled monks, and one can
almost fancy that within the dark passages
their hooded forms are moving silently
about; he might also expect to stumble
upon reverend father enjoying siesta
in the MONDAY sunlight, or note a holy
this does he come than to meet a surpliced
curate, or quiet-looking individual who
might be minor canon, or a choir boy
with a large white collar and a mortar
board cap.
Turn you in here at the chapter house,
where the abbot and his monks met for
discussion away back in the twelve, thir-
teen, fourteen and fifteen hundreds; where
also they sat in judgement on the stone
seats circling around. where they scourged
their culprits at the central pillar, whensO-
ever there were any culprits to sc0urge
here in the incompatible Chapter House
where for three centuries the English Com
mons debated, enacted and expounded;
where also down to modern times was
stored an Incompatible amount of public
records; where now in these degenerate
days is nothing-nOthing beside what has
been there and should be there now were it
not for inroads of spelling Goth and Vandal
nothing then but the stone seats, the cen
trail pillar, nothing but the building itself
bare Of its one time ornaments; save the
remnant of n pavement curiously inlaid,
saving bits of century paintings on the
walls, save a few glass cases filled with
rusty relics dug up from time to time about
the place, save ancient Roman collins of
stone; save also grim and helmeted po-
liceman half doing irrc verently in a stiff
backed chair and the rays of the spring
sunshine.
Then, too, in this Cathedral of St Peter
are there not "reminiscences of America?
Are there not marbles to commemorate the
times when the English and French fought
for the mastery in the Western World? Is
there not a monument erected by the Prov
fnce of Massachusetts Bay to the memory
Of Lord Howe? One to Colonel Town
send, who fell at Ticonderoga, and more
than all, one to the gallant Wolfe. George
Peabody has here memorial and 10, one
to Major Andre. The Goth and Vandel
has been at work on the latter; three times
has he stolen the head of Washington from
this tablet. so excellent the likeness,
Wandering about the abbey the visitor
becomes more than delighted; there is a
sort of-may I not say enchantment-
steals over him, his fancy scars to unusual
heights, and his mind traverses back
to the dim and distant past Be he
an ordinary visitor, he finds him
self anon at the gates that bar the en-
trance to the chapels; he joins party that
commits itself to the tender mercies of a
somber looking, grim visaged guide. Your
cathedral guide is unlike any other known
specimen of the genus homo. He is pos
sessed of a drawing voice, rising intiec
ton, an insatiate desire to tell all manner
of legends, historical and satirical, sacred
and profane, probable and improbable, all
of which he vouches for as facts. He re
jOices in a flowing black robe, which, as he
darts and puffs about from object to object,
like an enterprising steam tug, with IA lot
of weary sight seers in tow, waves about
in the little breeze he creates in his flight
leaving behind him a wake of black cloth
and rusty ribbons.
Guides, forsooth! | viii have none of
them. Rather let me by virtue Of d six
pence or a shilling placed in a dilapidated
tin box on dilapidated three-legged stool,
the whole decripit institution presided over
by an individual clad in the customary
suit of solemn black" wander at mine own
sweet inclination. Let this open sesame
unbar for me the gates and cause to
flee the ever ready and loqua
ciOus black robed. Let me enter
then by the tomb Of Sebert, whose
ashes have rested at Westminster since
SIG with those of his Queen Athelgodo. Let |
me make the round of the chapels, of which |
there are a dozen or less, for there are long
chapels and short chapels, round chapels |
and square chapels, chapels of kings and |
chapeIs of saints, where are buried all
manner of folks, bishops, archbishops, |
masters of the buckhounds, chief almoners
aides in waiting knights, even Lord
Lytton, ay, and Katherine of Valois
Now, until 1915, nearly 300 years,
coffin lay in an exposed condi-
ion, and Samuel Pepys, who always saw