[Illustration: _Shrine of Edward the Confessor._ WESTMINSTER ABBEY.] Historical Description OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY; ITS Monuments and Curiosities. [Illustration] PRINTED FOR THE VERGERS IN THE ABBEY, BY JAS. TRUSCOTT AND SON, SUFFOLK LANE, CANNON STREET, CITY. OF ADMISSION. _The North and West doors are open to Visitors. Guides are in attendance, from nine until six every day, except_ SUNDAY, CHRISTMAS DAY, _and_ GOOD FRIDAY. _The Abbey is not open to Visitors after the Afternoon Service during the Winter Months._ THE SERVICES. _On Sunday the entrance to the Abbey is by the North and South Transepts. Divine Service at_ 8 A.M., _at_ 10 A.M., _and at_ 3 P.M.; _and from Easter to the end of July, at_ 7 P.M. _At the usual Sunday Services, and on Saint and Holy Days, at_ 10 A.M., _there is a Sermon. The Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday in the month, at the_ 10 A.M. _Service, and on other Sundays (except when otherwise ordered) at_ 8 A.M. The names of the several Chapels, beginning from the south cross, and so passing round to the north cross, are in order as follows:--1. St. Benedict; 2. St. Edmund; 3. St. Nicholas; 4. Henry VII.; 5. St. Paul; 6. St. Edward the Confessor; 7. St. John; 8. Islip's Chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist; 9. St. John, St. Michael, and St. Andrew. The three last are now laid together. The Chapel of Edward the Confessor stands, as it were, in the centre, and is enclosed in the body of the Church. Keep on your right, and the Chapel of St. Benedict is adjoining the Tombs-gate, in which Chapel several Deans were buried. Dean Ireland was buried in front of Camden's monument, in the same grave with Mr. Gifford, his associate through life. Several men intercept all persons as they approach the Abbey, to show them the Courts of Law, Westminster Hall, &c., which are open all day; persons attending to them are oft-times prevented from seeing the Church for that day, as the hours of service intervene. WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Of the Foundation of the Abbey. Of the Founding of an Abbey on Thorney Island, where that of Westminster now stands, there are so many miraculous stories related by monkish writers, that the recital of them now would hardly be endured. Even the relations of ancient historians have been questioned by Sir Christopher Wren, who was employed to survey the present edifice, and who, upon the nicest examination, found nothing to countenance the general belief, "that it was erected on the ruins of a Pagan Temple." No fragments of Roman workmanship were discovered in any part of the building, many of which must undoubtedly have been intermixed among the materials, if a Roman temple had existed before on the same spot.