The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-08
ENZRAMcE TO TIE Tocx YARDS
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
THE PLACE WHERE KING ED
WARD WILL BE CROWNED.

How 1t Is Being Prepared for the
Royal CeremOny-Its History and
Its ROmances-"The TOmbs of the
Kings" Coronation Chair in
Which All English Sovereisns
Since 1872 Have Been Crowned.
Celebrated Stone on which Mon
archs of Ancient Ireland and
Scotland Took the Oath.
London, Eng, June 1.-At last the
month is here-the coronation month
the month that has been so long COM
ing, the month that turns the eyes of
the world on the worlds metropolis.
Twenty-six days more and Edward
will be crowned. What a food of in
cident that little sentence brings up.
1t is as if the tide of all time were
sweeping against the shores of old
England, for around this throne cIus-
ters such an eternity of memories that
were all else to perish the history of
this mundane sphere might be re-writ-
ten here
Standing on the threshold of another
coronation day, one may look down
the long aisle of centuries, and he is
overwhelmed. And yet, with all this
charm of hallowed romance. of stern
reality, 1 am not ready to fly to 1t
and leave the joys that dear old Amer
lea and its liberty hold for me.
Walking through this vista of coro-
nation days, there is one before which
| stop and ponder-and offer thanks
that of Oct. 20, 1860, the accession of
George Ill by whose oppression the
American colonies were brought to a
full realization of their servitude and
made to fight for an independence that
Will continue, let us hope, far beyond
the browning of British kings. until
the last and greatest of all coronation
days-the resurrection-shall have
come.
But 1 am here to write of the coro-
nation of Edward VII, and not of
George III, nor of the survival of the
f1ttest, monarchy or republic Much has
been told of the preparation London is
making for the great event, of the fes-
tivities to precede and to succeed the
coronation, but little has been penned
of the browning itself, the piece de
resistance of the entire gala period.
Westminster Abbey, where this part
of the programme is to be carried out
is now closed to sight-seers, but 1 was
fortunate enough to visit it last
its doors until the morning of
June 70 1 walked over the same floors
that the King will tread in few DAYS
and saw the chair in which he will be
crowned / spent several hours in the
historical old edifice and was lifted far
INTO the dim and distant past by the
tablets Ger the dead of sleeping ages
T. h. most interesting spot, of course.
IN all the great building is the chanel
S4intlV I'd he
in which the coronation is to occur.
This chapel may also be called the
Fombs of the Kings" although the
tomb of Edward the Confessor here is
not the original one. The shrine con-
tanning Edwards body was removed
to Westminster Palace whilst Edward
III was having a new tomb prepared
for it. A golden shrine enclosed his
coffin and was placed upon Purbeck
marble, decorated with gold mosaic
His Queen Editha, is buried to the
north of the shrine.
Among other royal personages whose
tombs are in this chapel is Edward l.
called the 'Longshanks." OF him it
was said: The arm of this Edward
was accounted the measure of a ward
generally received in England, so his
actions are praiseworthy and for sue
ceeding princes to initiate" His wife.
Eleanor, Queen of Good Memory"
Henry III, the founder of the present
editice; Henry V and Phillips. wife
of Edward III. are all here. together
with Edward III.
Here, too. rests Richard II. whose
coronation in the Abbey was more
splendid than any preceding one II
Was he who created the knights of
the Bath who from that day to the
present. nearly 500 years have formed
an important figure in the coronation
ceremony.
The coronation chair is kept In the
Contessor's chapel and taken out into
the choir Tor the ceremony. II Is the
one made for Edward / 10 enclose the
famous stone OF Scone. Tradition says
this was the stone used by Jacob as a
pillow az Bethel. II was carried 10
Egypt when his family removed thith-
er Next On Was taken 20 Spain About
ZOO IS o. us history ~ connected with
that Of Ireland. where it had been
conveyed b. the spaniards when they