It is said that on looking back from the portico of Henry VII.'s Chapel, every phase of gothic architecture, from Henry III. to Henry VII., may be seen. The glorious brass gates are adorned with all the badges of the founder-the fleur-de-lis, the portcullis and crown, the crown surrounded by daisies (in allusion to his mother Margaret), the dragon of Cadwallader (in allusion to the descent of Owen Tudor from that British king), the falcon and fetterlock, the thistle and crown, the united roses of York and Lancaster entwined with the crown, the initials H.R., the royal crown, and the three lions of England. The devices of Henry VII. are also borne by the angels sculptured on the frieze at the west end of the chapel. The windows have traces of the red roses of Lancaster and of the fleur-de-lis and H's with which they were once filled; from the end window the figure of Henry VII. looks down upon the whole. Seventy-three statues, whose 'natural simplicity and grandeur of character and drapery' are greatly commended by Flaxman, surround the walls. The fifth figure from the east in the south aisle represents a bearded woman leaning on a cross. It is St. Wilgefortis, also called St. Uncumber and St. Liberada, and was honoured by those who wished to be set free from an unhappy marriage. She prayed for release from a compulsory marriage, and her prayer was granted, through the beard which grew in one night. 'The very walls are wrought into universal ornament, encrusted with tracery, and scooped into niches, crowded with statues of saints and martyrs. Stone seems, by the cunning labour of the chisel, to have been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft, as if by magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb.'-Washington Irving. The stalls of the Knights of the Bath surround the chapel, with the seats for the esquires in front. The end stall on the right is decorated with a figure of Henry VII. The sculptures on the misereres are exceedingly quaint, chiefly monkish satires on the evil lives of their brethren. Amongst them are combats between monks and nuns, a monk seized and a monk carried off by the devil, one boy whipping another, apes gathering nuts, and a fox in armour riding a goose. The best is the Judgment of Solomon; the cause of the contention-the substitution of the dead for the living child—is represented with ludicrous simplicity, repeated on either side of the bracket. 6 The centre of the chapel towards the east is occupied by a splendid closure of gilt copper containing the glorious tomb of Henry VII. (1509) and Elizabeth of York (1503), one of the stateliest and daintiest monuments of Europe,' '1 executed for £1500 by the famous Pietro Torrigiano; the screen, which is no less beautiful, being the work of English artisans. Torrigiano is said to have sought the assistance of Benvenuto Cellini in the figures, and that great artist, then at the court of Francis I., was disposed to give 1 Lord Bacon. it at first, and then, finding that in his quarrel with Michelangelo, Torrigiano had so far forgotten himself as to strike that great man, he refused to have any more to do with one who could be guilty of such an act of sacrilege. The tomb is chiefly of black marble, but the figures and surrounding alto-relievos and pilasters are of gilt copper. The figures, wrapped in long mantles which descend to the feet, are most simple and beautiful. They once wore crowns, which have been stolen. Within the screen, Henry enjoined by his will that there should be a small altar, enriched with relics -one of the legs of St. George and a great piece of the Holy Cross. Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., by whose marriage the long feud between the Houses of York and Lancaster was ter minated, died in childbirth at the Tower, February 11, 1502-3the anniversary of her birthday. Her sister, Lady Katharine Courtenay, was chief mourner at her magnificent funeral in the Abbey. Henry survived his wife for over six years, and died at Richmond in 1509. Bishop Fisher preached his funeral sermon, which was printed by Wynkyn de Worde at the desire of the 'king's moder.' 'In this chappel the founder thereof, with his queen, lieth interr'd, under a monument of solid brass, most richly gilded, and artificially carved. Some slight it for the cheapness, because it cost but a thousand pounds in the making thereof. Such do not consider it as the work of so thrifty a prince, who would make a little money go far; besides that it was just at the turning of the tide (as one may term it) of money, which flowed after the finding out of the West Indies, though ebbing before.'-Fuller's Worthies. Henry VII. 'was of a high mind, and loved his own will and his own way; as one that revered himself, and would reign indeed. Had he been a private man he would have been termed proud. But in a wise prince, it was but keeping of distance, which indeed he did towards all. . . . To his confederates he was constant and just, but not open. . . . He was a prince, sad, virtuous, and full of thoughts and secret observations, and full of notes and memorials of his own hand, especially touching persons. . . . No doubt, in him, as in all men, and most of all in him, his fortune wrought upon his nature, and his nature upon his fortune. He attained to the crown, not only from a private fortune, which might endow him with moderation; but also from the fortune of an exiled man, which had quickened in him all seeds of observation and industry. And his times being rather prosperous than calm, had raised his confidence by success, but almost marred his nature by troubles.'-Bacon's Life of Henry VII. In the same vault with Henry and Elizabeth rests the huge coffin of James I. (1625). His funeral sermon was preached by Dean Williams, who compared him to Solomon in eight particulars! In front of the tomb of his grandparents is the restored altar which marks the burial-place of King Edward VI. (1553), who died at Greenwich in his sixteenth year-the good and strangely learned prince of whom Hooker says that though he died young, he lived long, for life is in action.' 'At his burying,' says Henry Machyn, 'was the greatest moan made for him of his death, as ever was heard or seen, both of all sorts of people, weeping and lamenting.' 'That godly and royal child, King Edward the Sixth, the flower of the Tudor name-the young flower that was untimely cropped as it began to fill our land with its early odours--the boy-patron of boys-the serious and holy child who walked with Cranmer and Ridley-fit associate, in those tender years, for the bishops and future martyrs of our Church, to receive, or (as occasion sometimes proved) to give instruction.'-Charles Lamb. The ancient altar-a splendid work of Torrigiano, which bore a wonderful terra-cotta figure of the dead Christ surrounded by angels-was destroyed by Sir Robert Harlow in the Civil Wars, but part of the frieze was found in 1869 in the young king's grave, and has been let into the modern altar. It is admirable carving of the Renaissance, and shows the Tudor roses and the lilies of France interwoven with a scrollwork pattern. On the coffin-plate of the young king is inscribed-after his royal titles -'On earth under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland supreme head'-having been evidently engraved during the nine days' reign of Lady Jane Grey. The reconstructed altar was first used in 1870, on the strange occasion when Dean Stanley administered the Sacrament to the revisers of the New Testament'representatives of almost every form of Christian belief in England' -before they commenced their labours. Inserted in this altar of toleration, by a quaint power of seeing threads of connection where they are not generally apparent, are a fragment of an Abyssinian altar brought from Magdala in 1868; a fragment of a Greek church in Damascus, destroyed during the 1 Fragments still exist in the Triforium. Christian massacre of 1860; and a fragment of the high altar of Canterbury, destroyed when the cathedral was burnt in 1174. Making the circuit of the chapel from the right, we see in the pavement the inscribed graves of— Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland (1790), fourth son of Frederick, Prince of Wales. Caroline (1757), third daughter, and Amelia (1786), second daughter, of George II. Louisa (1768), third daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Edward, Duke of York (1767), his second son, who died at Monaco. Queen Caroline of Anspach (1737),--the Queen of the Heart of Midlothian,' buried here with Handel's newly composed anthem, 'When the ear heard her, then it blessed her,' &c. King George II. (1760), the last sovereign buried at Westminster, who desired that his dust might mingle with that of his beloved wife, in accordance with which one side of each of the coffins was withdrawn, and they rest together. We now reach a chantry, separated from the chapel by a screen, of which only the basement remains, containing the gigantic monument of Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1624), cousin of James I., Lord Chamberlain, and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. Huge figures of Faith, Hope, Prudence, and Charity support the canopy. The monument was erected by the Duke's widow, who is buried here with all his family. Here also rest the natural son of Charles II. and the Duchess of Portsmouth, who was created Duke of Richmond on the extinction of the former family, and his widow, with many others of his house, including the widow of the sixth and last Duke, 'La belle Stuart,' whose effigy, by her own request, was placed by her tomb after death as well done in wax as could be, under crown glass and none other,' wearing the robes which she wore at the coronation of Queen Anne, and accompanied by the parrot 'which lived with her Grace forty years, and survived her only a few days.' The black marble pyramid at the foot of the tomb commemorates the infant Esme, Duke of Richmond. 'One curious feature in the tomb deserves notice. In the inscription the date of the year of the Duke's death is apparently omitted, though the month and day are mentioned. The year, however, is given in what is called a chronogram. The Latin translation of the verse in the Bible, "Know ye not that a prince and a great man has this day fallen?' (the words uttered by David in his lament over Abner), contains fourteen Roman numeral letters, and these being elongated into capitals are MDCVVVIIIIIIII, which give the date 1623. It is remarkable that words so appropriate to this nobleman should contain the date for this identical year, and it shows much ingenuity on the part of the writer of the inscription that he should have discovered it.'-The Builder, June 19, 1875. We now come to the first of the three eastern chapels. On the left is the tomb, by Westmacott, of Antoine, Duc de Montpensier, brother of Louis Philippe, who died in exile, at Salthill, 1807. The inscription is by General Dumouriez. This is the only monument placed in the Abbey for two centuries which is in accordance with the taste in which it was built. In the same vault with the Duke lay for some time Louise of Savoy, queen of Louis XVIII., who died in exile at Hartwell in Buckinghamshire. Her remains were removed to Sardinia in 1811. In the centre of the chapel is the grave of Lady Augusta Stanley 1 (1876), daughter of the seventh Earl of Elgin, 'for thirty years the devoted servant of Queen 1 With the exception of Lady Palmerston, the only woman buried in the Abbey since very early in the XIX. c. Victoria, and of the Queen's mother and children.' In the same grave, in the presence of a vast and sorrowing multitude, on July 25, 1881, was laid her husband, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, for eighteen years, as Dean of Westminster, the loving and devoted guardian of the Abbey, of which he was the historian. His (far too tall) effigy is by Boehm, with the appropriate inscription, 'I know that all things come to an end, but thy commandments are exceeding broad.' The commemorative window above represents in the upper part the history of the Bruce family, and, in the lower, Lady Augusta Stanley in the six works of mercy. 'And, truly, he who here Hath run his bright career, And served men nobly, and acceptance found, And borne to light and sight his witness high, Down the long age of truth that ripens slow, Matthew Arnold. 'As far as I understood what the duties of my office were supposed to be, in spite of every incompetence, I am yet humbly trustful that I have sustained before the mind of the nation the extraordinary value of the Abbey as a religious, national, and liberal institution.'-Dean Stanley's Last Words. The Central Eastern Chapel was the burial-place of the magnates of the Commonwealth, who, with few exceptions, were exhumed after the Restoration. The bodies of Cromwell, his son-in-law Ireton, and Bradshaw, the regicide judge, were hanged at Tyburn; the mother of Cromwell, with most of her kindred and friends, was buried in a pit near St. Margaret's Church; Elizabeth Claypole, the favourite daughter of the Protector, was left in peace. Here were once buried The vault vacated when the rebels were exhumed in 1661, was afterwards used as the burial-place of James Butler, the great Duke of Ormonde (1688), and all his family. Here also were interred many of the illegitimate descendants of Charles II., including— The Earl of Doncaster, son of the Duke of Monmouth, 1674. Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Cleveland, 1730. Charles Fitz Charles, Earl of Plymouth, who died at Tangiers, 1681. Here also the Earl of Portland, the friend of William III., was buried (1709), with the Duke of Schomberg and several of his family. In the Third Chapel lie (Right.) Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (1721), and his Duchess Catherine (1743), who was so proud of being the illegitimate daughter of James II. and Catherine |