London in 1731 Part 7

This privilege, it is said, was first granted to the abbey by Sebert, king of the East Saxons, increased by King Edgar, and confirmed by Edward the Confessor, by the following charter:-

"Edward, by the grace of G.o.d, king of Englishmen; I make it to be known to all generations of the world after me, that, by special commandment of our holy father Pope Leo, I have renewed and honoured the holy church of the blessed apostle St. Peter of Westminster; and I order and establish for ever, that what person, of what condition or estate soever he be, from whencesoever he come, or for what offence or cause it be, either for his refuge in the said holy place, he is a.s.sured of his life, liberty, and limbs: and over this, I forbid, under pain of everlasting d.a.m.nation, that no minister of mine, or any of my successors, intermeddle with any of the goods, lands, and possessions of the said persons taking the said sanctuary: for I have taken their goods and livelode into my special protection. And therefore I grant to every, each of them, in as much as my terrestrial power may suffice, all manner of freedom of joyous liberty. And whosoever presumes, or doth contrary to this my grant, I will he lose his name, wors.h.i.+p, dignity, and power; and that with the great traitor Judas that betrayed our Saviour, he be in the everlasting fire of h.e.l.l. And I will and ordain, that this my grant endure as long as there remaineth in England either love or dread of Christian name."

This privilege of sanctuary, as far as it related to traitors, murderers, and felons, was in a great measure abolished by a statute of the 32nd Henry VIII.: and in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, every debtor who fled to sanctuary, to shelter himself from his creditors, was obliged to take an oath of the following tenor, viz.:- That he did not claim the privilege of sanctuary to defraud any one of his goods, debts, or money, but only for the security of his person until he should be able to pay his creditors.

That he would give in a true particular of his debts and credits.

That he would endeavour to pay his debts as soon as possible.

That he would be present at the abbey at morning and evening prayer.

That he would demean himself honestly and quietly, avoid suspected houses, unlawful games, banqueting, and riotous company.

That he would wear no weapon, or be out of his lodging before sunrise or after sunset, nor depart out of the precinct of the sanctuary without the leave of the dean, or archdeacon in his absence.

That he would be obedient to the dean and the officers of the house.

And lastly, that if he should break his oath in any particular, he should not claim the privilege of sanctuary.

And if any creditor could make it appear that he had any money, goods, or chattels that were not contained in the particular given in to the dean and the church, the sanctuary man was to be imprisoned till he came to an agreement with his creditors.

The Abbey-Church of St. Peter at Westminster appears to be very ancient, though far from being so ancient as is vulgarly reported.

Some relate, without any authority to support the conjecture, that it was founded in the days of the Apostles by St. Peter himself; others that it was erected by King Lucius about the year 170. And by some it is said to have been built by King Sebert, the first Christian king of the East-Saxons (Ess.e.x and Middles.e.x), anno 611.

But I take it for granted the church was not built before the convent or abbey it belonged to. People did not use to build churches at a distance from town, unless for the service of convents or religious houses. But neither in the times of the Apostles, nor in the supposed reign of King Lucius, in the second century, was there any such thing as a convent in England, or perhaps in any part of Christendom. During the dominion of the Saxons in this island, monasteries indeed were erected here, and in many other kingdoms, in great abundance; and as the monks generally chose thick woods or other solitary places for their residence, where could they meet with a spot of ground fitter for their purpose than this woody island called Thorney, then dest.i.tute of inhabitants? But I am inclined to think that neither this or any other monastery was erected in South Britain till the seventh century, after Austin the monk came into England. As to the tradition of its having been built upon the ruins of the temple of Apollo, destroyed by an earthquake, I do not doubt but the monks were very ready to propagate a fable of this kind, who formed so many others to show the triumphs of Christianity over paganism, and to induce their proselytes to believe that heaven miraculously interposed in their favour by earthquakes, storms, and other prodigies. But to proceed.

When the convent was erected, I make no doubt that there was a church or chapel built as usual for the service of the monks; but it is evident from history that the dimensions of the first or second church that stood here were not comparable to those of the present church.

We may rely upon it that about the year 850 there was a church and convent in the island of Thorney, because about that time, London being in the possession of the Danes, the convent was destroyed by them (not in the year 659, as some writers have affirmed, because the Danes did not invade England till nearly 200 years afterwards).

The abbey lay in ruins about a hundred years, when King Edgar, at the instance of Dunstan, Abbot of Glas...o...b..ry (and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), rebuilt this and several other monasteries, about the year 960. Edward the Confessor, a devout prince, enlarged this church and monastery, in which he placed the Benedictine monks, ordered the regalia to be kept by the fathers of the convent, and succeeding kings to be crowned here, as William the Conqueror and several other English monarchs afterwards were, most of them enriching this abbey with large revenues; but King Henry III. ordered the church built by Edward the Confessor to be pulled down, and erected the present magnificent fabric in the room of it, of which he laid the first stone about the year 1245.

That admired piece of architecture at the east end, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was built by Henry VII., anno 1502, and from the founder is usually called Henry the VII.'s Chapel. Here most of the English monarchs since that time have been interred.

The dimensions of the abbey-church, according to the new survey, are as follows, viz.:- The length of the church, from the west end of it to the east end of St. Edward's Chapel, is 354 feet; the breadth of the west end, 66 feet; the breadth of the cross aisle, from north to south, 189 feet; the height of the middle roof, 92 feet; the distance from the west end of the church to the choir, 162 feet; and from the west end to the cross aisle, 220 feet; the distance from the east end of St. Edward's Chapel to the west end of Henry VII.'s Chapel, 36 feet; and the length of Henry VII.'s Chapel, 99 feet: so that the length of the whole building is 489 feet; the breadth of Henry VII.'s Chapel, 66 feet; and the height, 54 feet. The nave and cross aisles of the abbey-church are supported by fifty slender pillars, of Suss.e.x marble, besides forty-five demi-pillars or pilasters. There are an upper and lower range of windows, being ninety-four in number, those at the four ends of the cross very s.p.a.cious. All which, with the arches, roofs, doors, &c., are of the ancient Gothic order. Above the chapiters the pillars spread into several semi-cylindrical branches, forming and adorning the arches of the pillars, and those of the roofs of the aisles, which are three in number, running from east to west, and a cross aisle running from north to south. The choir is paved with black and white marble, in which are twenty-eight stalls on the north side, as many on the fourth, and eight at the west end; from the choir we ascend by several steps to a most magnificent marble altarpiece, which would be esteemed a beauty in an Italian church.

Beyond the altar is King Edward the Confessor's Chapel, surrounded with eleven or twelve other chapels replenished with monuments of the British n.o.bility, for a particular whereof I refer the reader to the "Antiquities of St. Peter, or the Abbey-Church of Westminster,"

by J. Crull, M.D. Lond. 1711, 8vo, and the several supplements printed since; and shall only take notice of those of the kings and queens in the chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, which are as follows, viz., Edward I., King of England; Henry III.; Matilda, wife of Henry I.; Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I.; St. Edward the Confessor, and Queen Editha, his wife; Henry V., and Queen Catherine of Valois, his wife; Edward III., and Queen Philippa, his wife; Richard II., and Queen Anne, his wife. And on the south side of the choir, King Sebert, and Queen Anne of Cheve, wife to Henry VIII.

East of St. Edward's Chapel is that of Henry VII., dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, to which we ascend by twelve stone steps. At the west end whereof are three brazen doors finely wrought, which give an entrance into it. The stalls on the north and south sides are exquisitely carved. The roof is supported by twelve pillars and arches of the Gothic order, abounding with enrichments of carved figures, fruit, &c. At the east end is a s.p.a.cious window with stained gla.s.s, besides which there are thirteen other windows above, and as many below on the north and south sides. Under each of the thirteen uppermost windows are five figures placed in niches, representing kings, queens, bishops, &c., and under them the figures of as many angels supporting imperial crowns. The roof, which is all stone, is divided into sixteen circles, curiously wrought, and is the admiration of all that see it.

The outside of this chapel was adorned with fourteen towers, three figures being placed in niches on each of them, which were formerly much admired; but the stone decaying and mouldering away, they make but an odd appearance at present.

In this chapel have been interred most of the English kings since Richard III., whose tombs are no small ornament to it, particularly that of Henry VII., the founder, which stands in the middle of the area towards the east end.

The tomb is composed of a curious pedestal whose sides are adorned with various figures, as the north with those of six men, the east with those of two cupids supporting the king's arms and an imperial crown; on the south side, also, six figures, circ.u.mscribed--as those on the north side--with circles of curious workmans.h.i.+p, the most easterly of which contains the figure of an angel treading on a dragon. Here is also a woman and a child, seeming to allude to Rev.

xii.; and on the west end the figure of a rose and an imperial crown, supported with those of a dragon and a greyhound: on the tomb are the figures of the king and queen, lying at full length, with four angels, one at each angle of the tomb, all very finely done in bra.s.s.

The screen or fence is also of solid bra.s.s, very strong and s.p.a.cious, being in length 19 feet, in breadth 11, and the alt.i.tude 11, adorned with forty-two pillars and their arches; also, twenty smaller hollow columns and their arches in the front of the former, and joined at the cornice, on which cornice is a kind of acroteria, enriched with roses and portcullises interchanged in the upper part, and with the small figures of dragons and greyhounds (the supporters aforesaid) in the lower part; and at each of the four angles is a strong pillar made open, or hollow, composed in imitation of diaper and Gothic archwork; the four sides have been adorned with thirty- two figures of men, about a cubit high, placed in niches, of which there are only seven left, the rest being stolen away (one Raymond, about the 11th of Queen Elizabeth, having been twice indicted for the same); and about the middle of the upper part of each of the four sides is a s.p.a.cious branch adorned with the figure of a rose, where might on occasion be placed lamps. This admirable piece of art is open at top, and has two portals, one on the north, the other on the south side, all of fine bra.s.s.

This Royal founder's epitaph:

Septimus Henricus tumulo requiescit in isto, Qui regum splendor, lumen et orbis erat.

Rex vigil et sapiens, comes virtutis, amatur, Egregius forma, strenuus atque potens.

Qui peperit pacem regno, qui bella peregit Plurima, qui victor semper ab hoste redit, Qui natas binis conjunxit regibus ambas, Regibus et cunctis faedere junctus erat.

Qui sacrum hoc struxit templum, statuitque; sepulchrum Pro se, proque sua conjuge, proque domo.

l.u.s.tra decem atque; annos tres plus compleverit annos,

Nam tribus octenis regia sceptra tulit; Quindecies Domini centenus fluxerat annus, Currebat nonus, c.u.m venit atra dies; Septima ter mensis lux tunc fulgebat Aprilis, c.u.m clausit summum tanta corona diem.

Nulla dedere prius tantum sibi saecula regem Anglia, vix similem posteriora dabunt.

Septimus hic situs est Henricus gloria regum Cunctorum, ipsius qui tempestate fuerunt; Ingenio atque; opibus gestarum et nomine rerum, Accessere quibus naturae dona benignae: Frontis honos facies augusta heroica forma, Junctaque ei suavis conjux per pulchra pudica, Et faecunda fuit; felices prole parentes, Henric.u.m quibus octavum terra Anglia debet.

Under the figure of the king.

Hic jacet Henricus ejus nominis septimus, Anglicae quondam rex, Edmundi Richmondiae comitis filius, qui die 22 Aug. Rex creatus, statim post apud Westmonasterium die 30 Octob. coronatur 1485.

Moritur deinde 21 die Aprilis anno aetat. 53, regnavit annos 23, menses 8, minus uno die.

Under the queen's figure.

Hic jacet regina Elizabetha, Edvardi quarti quondam regis filia, Edvardi quinti regis quondam nominatur soror: Henrici septimi olim regis conjux, atque; Henrici octavi regis mater inclyta; obiit autem suum diem in turri Londoniarum die secund. Feb. anno Domini 1502, 37 annorum aetate functa.

The modern tombs in the abbey, best worth the viewing, are those of the duke of Newcastle, on the left hand as we enter the north door, of Sir Isaac Newton, at the west end of the choir, of Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller, and Mr. Secretary Craggs at the west end of the abbey, of Mr. Prior among the poets at the door which faces the Old Palace Yard, of the Duke of Buckingham in Henry VII.th's chapel, and that of Doctor Chamberlain on the North side of the choir: most of these are admirable pieces of sculpture, and show that the statuary's art is not entirely lost in this country; though it must be confessed the English fall short of the Italians in this science.

Westminster Hall is one of the largest rooms in Europe, being two hundred and twenty-eight feet in length, fifty-six feet broad, and ninety feet high. The walls are of stone, the windows of the Gothic form, the floor stone, and the roof of timber covered with lead; and having not one pillar in it, is supported by b.u.t.tresses. It is usually observed that there are no cobwebs ever seen in this hall, and the reason given for this is, that the timber of which the roof is composed is Irish oak, in which spiders will not harbour; but I am inclined to believe that this is a fact not to be depended on, for I find the timber for rebuilding and repairing the Palace of Westminster in the reign of Richard III. was brought from the forests in Ess.e.x; and as there is no colour from history to surmise that the timber of this hall was Irish oak, so is there no imaginable reason why timber should be fetched from another kingdom for the repair of the hall, when the counties of Middles.e.x and Ess.e.x were great part of them forest, and afforded timber enough to have built twenty such places; and we find that the timber of the Ess.e.x forests was in fact applied to the repairs of this palace; for it cannot be pretended that the present roof is the same that was erected by William Rufus when it was first built, it appearing that Richard II., about the year 1397, caused the old roof to be taken down and a new one made (as has been observed already) and this is probably the same we now see. Here are hung up as trophies, 138 colours, and 34 standards, taken from the French and Bavarians at Hochstadt, anno 1704.

The House of Lords, or chamber where the peers a.s.semble in Parliament, is situated between the Old Palace Yard and the Thames.

It is a s.p.a.cious room, of an oblong form, at the south end whereof is the King's throne, to which he ascends by several steps: on the right hand of the throne is a seat for the Prince of Wales, and on the left another for the princes of the blood, and behind the throne the seats of the peers under age.

On the east side of the house, to the right of the throne, sit the archbishops and bishops; on the opposite side of the house sit the dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts; and on forms crossing the area, the barons under the degree of viscounts.

Before the throne are three wool-sacks, or broad seats stuffed with wool, to put the Legislature in mind, it is said, that the right management of this trade is of the last importance to the kingdom.

On the first of these wool-sacks, next to the throne, sits the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper, who is Speaker of the House of Peers; and on the other two, the Lord Chief Justices and the rest of the judges, with the Master of the Rolls, and the other Masters in Chancery: about the middle of the house, on the east side, is a chimney, where a fire is usually kept in the winter; and towards the north, or lower end of the house, is a bar that runs across it, to which the commons advance when they bring up bills or impeachments, or when the King sends for them, and without this bar the council and witnesses stand at trials before the peers. The house is at present hung with tapestry, containing the history of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, anno 1588.

The house or chamber where the commons a.s.semble is to the northward of the House of Lords, and stands east and west, as the other does north and south. The room is pretty near square, and towards the upper end is the Speaker's armed chair, to which he ascends by a step or two; before it is a table where the clerks sit, on which the mace lies when the Speaker is in the chair, and at other times the mace is laid under the table. On the north and south sides, and at the west end, are seats gradually ascending as in a theatre, and between the seats at the west end is the entrance by a pair of folding-doors. There are galleries also on the north, south, and west, where strangers are frequently admitted to hear the debates.

This room was anciently a chapel, founded by King Stephen about the year 1141, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; however, it obtained the name of St. Stephen's Chapel. It was rebuilt by King Edward III., anno 1347, who placed in it a dean, twelve secular canons, thirteen vicars, four clerks, five choristers, a verger, and a keeper of the chapel, and built them a convent, which extended along the Thames, endowing it with large revenues, which at the dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Edward VI. amounted to near eleven thousand pounds per annum. Almost ever since the dissolution, this chapel has been converted to the use we find it at present, viz., for the session of the Lower House of Parliament, who, before that time, usually a.s.sembled in the chapter-house belonging to the Abbey, when the Parliament met at Westminster. The Painted Chamber lies between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and here the committees of both houses usually meet at a conference; but neither this nor the other remaining apartments of this Palace of Westminster have anything in them that merit a particular description.

The open place usually called Charing Cross, from a fine cross which stood there before the grand rebellion, is of a triangular form, having the Pall Mall and the Haymarket on the north-west, the Strand on the east, and the street before Whitehall on the south. In the middle of this s.p.a.ce is erected a brazen equestrian statue of King Charles I., looking towards the place where that prince was murdered by the rebels, who had erected a scaffold for that purpose before the gates of his own palace. This statue is erected on a stone pedestal seventeen feet high, enriched with his Majesty's arms, trophy-work, palm-branches, &c., enclosed with an iron palisade, and was erected by King Charles II. after his restoration. The brick buildings south-east of Charing Cross are mostly beautiful and uniform, and the King's stables in the Mews, which lie north of it, and are now magnificently rebuilding of hewn stone, will probably make Charing Cross as fine a place as any we have in town; especially as it stands upon an eminence overlooking Whitehall.

The Banqueting-house stands on the east side of the street adjoining to the great gate of Whitehall on the south. This edifice is built of hewn stone, and consists of one stately room, of an oblong form, upwards of forty feet in height, the length and breadth proportionable, having galleries round it on the inside, the ceiling beautifully painted by that celebrated history-painter, Sir Peter Paul Rubens: it is adorned on the outside with a lower and upper range of columns of the Ionic and Composite orders, their capitals enriched with fruit, foliage, &c., the intercolumns of the upper and lower range being handsome sashed windows. It is surrounded on the top with stone rails or banisters, and covered with lead.

St. James's Palace, where the Royal Family now resides in the winter season, stands pleasantly upon the north side of the Park, and has several n.o.ble rooms in it, but is an irregular building, by no means suitable to the grandeur of the British monarch its master. In the front next St. James's Street there appears little more than an old gate-house, by which we enter a little square court, with a piazza on the west side of it leading to the grand staircase; and there are two other courts beyond, which have not much the air of a prince's palace. This palace was a hospital, suppressed by Henry VIII., who built this edifice in the room of it.