Produced by D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland, Christine D. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: WESTMINSTER ABBEY.--FRONT.]
BOSTON D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS
Copyright, 1886. by D. LOTHROP & COMPANY.
I. The Building of the Abbey--Princess Catherine and Prince Henry 7
II. The Conquest of Wales--Prince Alfonso 31
IV. Edward the Fifth, and Richard, Duke of York 79
VI. Miss Elizabeth Russell, "the Child of Westminster" 130
VIII. Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales 176
IX. Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (_continued_) 196
XI. Princess Anne, and Henry, Duke of Gloucester 243
XII. William Henry, Duke of Gloucester 269
(_From rare old Prints and Photographs._)
Shrine of Edward the Confessor.--At left, Tomb of Henry the Third 25
Tomb of John of Eltham, St. Edmund's Chapel 61
Ancient Canopy of the Tomb of John of Eltham 67
Tomb of William of Windsor and his Sister Blanche 74
Memorial Urn in Henry the Seventh's Chapel 101
Interior of the Chapel of Henry the Seventh 107
Exterior of the Chapel of Henry the Seventh 113
Edward the Sixth.--_From a Painting by Holbein_ 119
Queen Elizabeth.--_From Painting in the English National Portrait Gallery_ 137
The Monument to Queen Elizabeth in the North Aisle 157
The Monuments of Princess Sophia and Princess Mary 171
Tomb of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham 227
Lord Francis Villiers.--_After Vandyck_ 235
Westminster Abbey, looking toward the Altar.--_From Etching by H. Toussaint_ 273
The Old Dormitory at Westminster School 279
Twelve hundred years ago, in the reign of King Sebert the Saxon, a poor fisherman called Edric, was casting his nets one Sunday night into the Thames. He lived on the Isle of Thorns, a dry spot in the marshes, some three miles up the river from the Roman fortress of London. The silvery Thames washed against the island's gravelly shores. It was covered with tangled thickets of thorns. And not so long before, the red deer, and elk and fierce wild ox had strayed into its shades from the neighboring forests.[1]
Upon the island a little church had just been built, which was to be consecrated on the morrow. Suddenly Edric was hailed from the further bank by a venerable man in strange attire. He ferried the stranger across the river, who entered the church and consecrated it with all the usual rites--the dark night being bright with celestial splendor. When the ceremony was over, the stranger revealed to the awestruck fisherman that he was St. Peter, who had come to consecrate his own Church of Westminster. "For yourself," he said, "go out into the river; you will catch a plentiful supply of fish, whereof the larger part shall be salmon. This I have granted on two conditions--first, that you never again fish on Sundays; and secondly, that you pay a tithe of them to the Abbey of Westminster."[2]