Paris, it was the first cruciform church erected in England, the immense size and beauty of which can be seen in the Bayeux tapestry. The foundation was laid somewhere about 1052, and the church was consecrated in 1065, a few days prior to the Confessor's death. The monastery was filled with monks from Exeter, whilst Pope Nicholas II. constituted the Abbey for the inauguration of the kings of England. Throughout the succession of reigning heads, Edward V., who died uncrowned, was the only exception. Of the Confessor's church and monastery the only remains appear to be the Chapel of the Pyx, the lower part of the refectory below the Westminster schoolroom, a portion of the dormitory, and the walls of the south cloister. [Illustration: LONDON WESTMINSTER ABBEY. THE NORTH TRANSEPT] The Abbey, with these few exceptions, was demolished and rebuilt on a magnificent scale by Henry III. between 1220 and 1269. The material employed was first a green stone and afterwards Cæn stone. The portions that remain to us from that rebuilding are the Confessor's chapel, the side aisles and their chapels, and the choir and transepts, all beautiful examples of the Geometrical Pointed period of architecture. Henry's work was continued by his son Edward I., who added the eastern portion of the nave after the same style; it was afterwards carried on by successive abbots till the erection of the great west window by Abbot Estney in 1498. The College Hall, the Abbot's House, Jerusalem Chamber, and part of the cloisters had also in the meantime been added by Abbot Littlington in 1380. Amongst various improvements Henry VII. built the west end of the nave, his own chapel, the deanery, and portions of the cloisters in the Perpendicular style. The choir, a fine specimen of Early English with decorations added in the fourteenth century, is where the coronation of English sovereigns takes place, and contains the tombs of Sebert, King of the East Angles, Anne of Cleves, and Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Leicester. Henry VII.'s chapel displays the architect's skill to perfection, with the wonderful fretted work of the roof and the graceful fan-tracery. It contains the glorious tomb of Henry VII., the work of the great sculptor Pietro Torrigiano. It is composed chiefly of black marble with figures and pilasters of gilt copper. The figures once wore crowns, but some sacrilegious hands have stolen them. In the chapel of Edward the Confessor are the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Purbeck marble, the altar-tomb of Edward I., the coronation chairs of the English sovereigns, besides the stone of Scone, the old coronation seat of the Scottish kings. The beautiful chapels of St. Benedict, St. Edmund, St. Nicholas, St. Paul, St. Erasmus, and St. John the Baptist chiefly contain the monuments of ecclesiastics and nobility.