The Choir Of Westminster Abbey
For more than
thirteen hundred years have prayers ascended from this consecrated site, for a
church has said to have been erected here as early as 616. Parts f the present
building date from 1065. Writers without number have recorded their impressions
of this place, and years ago Washington Irving wrote: “The spaciousness and
gloom of this vast edifice produce a profound and mysterious awe…. We feel that
we are surrounded by the congregated bones of the great men of the past times
who have filled history with their deeds and the earth with their renown.” The
latest shrine of England’s history to which ate Abbey has given shelter is the
Tomb of England’s Unknown Soldier.
From where we
stand in the choir we are looking west; through and above the screen we can see
along the remaining length of the nave. The altar is, of course, behind us,
with the chapels of Edward the confessor and Henry VII still farther beyond at
the east. The principal entrance is off at our right, at the end of the north
transept. Over our heads the gothic roof is more than one hundred feet above
the pavement. Those pointed arches beyond the organ pipes open into side aisles
along the nave filled with monuments of Sir John Herschel and Sir Isaac Newton,
for example, are only a few rods from where we stand now, in the north (right)
aisle nearly opposite this screen. The Poet’s corner is behind us at our left,
over in the south transept. The famous old coronation chair is kept in Henry
VII chapel, one of the most beautiful parts of the Abbey.
Copyright by Keystone View Company
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