Highways and Byways in LondonCook, Emily Constance Baird
History
Highways and Byways in London
Cook, Emily Constance Baird
London (England) -- Description and travel
How dazzlingly the sunlight of London gleams upon us, as we leave the
twilight of the Abbey! We may quit it by the small door of "Poet's
Corner," that door where poor, ill-used, foolish Queen Caroline beat
in vain and undignified effort for admittance to and participation in
her cruel husband's coronation; dying, one short fortnight afterwards,
"of a broken heart." From Poet's Corner we enter upon a pleasant green
sward, diversified by the flying buttresses that, in grand blackness
of London smoke, support the Chapter-House; emerging, presently, into
the strange twentieth-century bustle and din of Victoria-Street. Or,
going out through the front entrance in the North Transept,
("Solomon's Porch,") we come upon St. Margaret's Church, that building
which, beautiful in itself, renders such service to the Abbey, by
presenting it to the eye in its true proportions. The ancient
cloisters, part of which date from the early conventual buildings
here, (a Benedictine house connected with the foundation of the first
minster), may be reached, either through a door from the South Aisle,
or through the neighbouring "Dean's Yard," a pleasant square of
old-fashioned houses, where from time immemorial the merry
Westminster boys have played. If the visitor be of an antiquarian, or
historical, turn of mind, he may now penetrate to the old "Chapel of
the Pyx," a remnant of the earliest times, and the ancient
treasure-house of England's Kings; or to the Chapter-House, an
octagonal chamber, now restored to its pristine beauty by judicious
restoration. If, on the contrary, he merely prefer to wander vaguely,
every turn of the cloisters will present to him a new and charming
picture. Especially in spring are these cloisters delightful, when the
old trees of the courts and closes put on their early green, an
innocent green that contrasts so poetically with the crumbling grime
of the ancient walls. It is the eternal contrast of Life and of Death.
In this favoured spot, the Canons' houses, the old School of
Westminster, and the ecclesiastical precincts generally, are all
entangled in a labyrinth of cloisters, difficult to thread, save to
the elect. School and church buildings, cloisters, picturesque byways
and back streets, seem all here inextricably confused; but this only
renders the locality the more attractive. Suddenly, you come upon a
brass door, announcing, in spotless metal, "The Deanery." It is in a
quiet court, built up under the Abbey's very shadow; and here, facing
you, is the famous "Jerusalem Chamber," a most picturesque building
outside, with ancient, crumbling, (happily not "restored,") stones,
and painted glass windows. Here, as told in Shakespeare, King Henry
IVth died:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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