New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-27
A RAMBLE IN ENGLAND.
OLD CHURCHES OF LONDON.
by WILLIAM WINTER.

commended. llunurenS OF PERSONS roam through
the stored places OF England carrying nothing
away but the bare sense Of travel. 1t Is not the
spectacle that benefits but the meaning of the
spectacle In the great temples Of religion, in those
wonder full cathedrals which the glory of the
Old World we ought 20 feel. not merely tho phys-
cal beauty but that perfect, illimltable faith the
passionate inccss1nt devotion which alone made
them possible The cold intellect of scepticai age
like the oresent-cOnld never create such vast
and majestic cathcdra as that OF Canterbury Not
till tho pilgrim feels this truth has he really
learned the lesson of such paces-to keep alive IN
his heart the capacity of absolute self sacrifice of
toll and of for the grandeur and beauty of tho
spiritual life At the tombs OF great men we o"ght
to feel something moro than the consciousness oil
the crumblng clay that mOulders withln-some-
thing more even than knowledge OF their memoir
able words and deeds; We ought, as ponder on
tue certainty of death and the evanescence OF all
earthly things TO realize that Art at least is perma
nent and that no creature can be better employed
than IN noble effort to make the soul worthy of
immortality The relics of the past, contemplated
merely because they relics, are nothing. You
tire in this old land of the endless Of ruined
towers and Of wasting graves; you scken at the
thought OF the mortality Of a thousand years de-
caying at your feet, and you onA TO look again on
roses and the face OF childhood the ocean and the
stars But not II the meaning OF the past Is truly
within your sympathy; not If you perceive Its
associations as feeling equally with knowledge;
no5 II you truly know that its lessons are not OF
death but of life To-day builds over the ruins OF
Yesterday, as well in the soul of man as on the
vanishing cities that mark his course There need
be no regret that in this sense. the present should
obterate the past.
Much. however. as London has changed, and con-
-, finn. nch,t
and long will continue to remain, many objects
that startle and impress the sensitive mind
Through all its wide compass. by night and day.
there flows and beats turbulent resounding tide
of activity and thousands of trivial and yacuOus
people sordid. ignorant and commonplace tramp
to and fro amid its stored antiquities, Needless of
their very existence. Through such surroundings,
Lut finding here and there n sympathetic guide or
a friendly suggestion, the explorer must take his
way.-lOnely in the crowd, and walking, indeed,
like one who lives in dream Yet he never VIII
drift in VAIN through n city like this went, the
other night into the cloistcrs OF Westminster
Abbey-tnat part. the South Walk, which is acces-
sble after the gates have been closed. 1he stars
shone down upon the blackenlng walls and glm-
mcring windows OF the great cathedral; the Srihi'
mysterious arches were dimly lighted; the STONY
pathways. stretching away beneath the venerable
mi rC
darkness: not a sound was heard but the faint
rustlinp of the grass within the close Every stone
here is the mark of a sepulchre'; every breath OF
fine NIGHT wind seemed the whisper of a gliding
ghost. Here, among the crowded graves, rest Bet
terton. Anne Oldfcld and Anne Bracegirde,-In
Oueen Alne's reian the most brilliant umnarles of
the stage-and here was buried the dust of Aaron
Hill. the old manager of Drury Lane. who wrote
" The FAIR IncOnstant" for Barton Booth, and some
of tho sweetest loye-sOngs of his time. Here
| too. are the relics OF Mrs. Cibber and Spranger
Barry Sitting upon the narrow ledge which
WAS the monks rest, | could touch, close
nj hand. the tomb of mtred Abbot
while at my feet was the great stone that
covers twenty-sx monks of Westminster who per-
ished by the Plague nearly 600 years ago. 1t would
scarcely be believed that the doors of dwellings
omen upon this gloomy spot; that women may
sometimes be seen tending flowers upon the lodges
that roof these coister walks. Yet so 1t isl and in
|. such "A place at such tlme You comprehend
better than before the selfcentred serious, runi
nant. romantic character of the English mind. -
which loves more than any thing else in the world
the privacy of august surroundings aud sOmbro
and stately solitude 1t need hardly he sad that
You likewise obtain here most striking sense of
the power of contrast. | again aware of this,
| little later when, seeing DIM light Ia st. Marga-
rets Church. near by, | entered that old temple
and found the boys of the choir at their rehearsal
| and presently observed on the wall brass plate
which announces that Sir Walter Raleigh was
buried here in the chancel, after being decapitated
for high treason IN the Palace laid outside. Such
things are the surprises of this historic capital-the
eSceednq great reward of the wanderers devotion
J This inscription bcgs the reader to remember
Raieigh's virtues as well his fauts.--a plea
| tl,o SlUulI
made for himself at last. 1 thought of the we'll
| known verses that the old warrOrpOet left in his
| Bible when they led him ont to die:
| Even such Is time that takes III trust
| Onr YOUTH our joys. onr all we have,
| And pays liz nOIght but age and dust;
Which IN the dark ana silent grave.
| When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days
But from this EARTH this grave, this dust,
MY God shall raise me mp, trust"
| In St Marcarot's-a stored haunt. for shining
names alike of nvbles and poets-was also buried
| John SHELTON another of the old bards tOblIt.
! 152o) the enemy and satrist of Cardinal Wolsey
| and Sir Thomas More, one OF whom he described
/ a. madde Amalckc." and the other rs dawc0ck
| doctor" Their renown has managed to sury i've
these terrific shafts but at least this was falcon
who flew at eagles. Such old churches rs this
guarding so well their treasures of hlstoryare, IN
n spaclal sense, the travellers blessings. At IT.
! CHESS. Cripplegate, tho sexton is woman and
she will point ont to you tho lettered stone that
| formerly marked the grave OF Milton 1t is IN the
| nave but it has been moved to place about
twelve feet from ls original pOsition,-the remains
of the illustrious poet being in fact, beneath tho
Aoorinp of pew on the left of the aisle abont the
middle of the church. Among the monuments hard
bv is n fine marble bust of Milton. placed against
| the wall and it Is said. by way of enhancing its
value that George tho Third came here to soc 1t.
Several Of the neighborng inscriptions are OF as
! tonishrng qualntncss. They claim tho dust of
| Dame. DE Foe for this church. but cannot desig-