Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and CuriositiesAnonymous
History
Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and Curiosities
Anonymous
Westminster Abbey
To take an advantageous view of the inside, you must go to the west door,
between the towers; and the whole body of the church opens itself at once
to your eye, which cannot but fill the mind of every beholder with the
awful solemnity of the place, caused by the loftiness of the roof, and the
happy disposition of the lights and of that noble range of pillars, by
which the whole building is supported. The pillars terminate towards the
east by a sweep, thereby enclosing the Chapel of Edward the Confessor in a
kind of semicircle, and excluding all the rest. On the arches of the
pillars are galleries of double columns, fifteen feet wide, covering the
side aisles, and lighted by a middle range of windows, over which there is
an upper range of larger windows: by these and the under range, with the
four capital windows, the whole fabric is so admirably lighted, that the
spectator is never incommoded by darkness, nor dazzled with glare.
Painted Glass.
Within the last five years twenty-two windows have been enriched with
stained glass: eight in the Lantern or Central Tower; six in the South
Clerestory of the Nave; one in the Apse; seven in the North Transept. The
object has been to lay the foundation of a general design illustrative of
a portion of the "Te Deum."
The eight windows in the Lantern or Central Tower represent angels, and
round the sustaining arches is inscribed,--"To Thee all angels cry aloud,
the heavens and all the powers therein; To Thee cherubin and seraphin
continually do cry: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and
earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory."
The six windows in the South Clerestory, west of the Transepts represent
Prophets, in illustration of that verse in the "Te Deum:"--"The goodly
fellowship of the prophets praise Thee."
It is hoped that this commencement may lead not only to the completion of
what has been begun, but also to the enrichment of the corresponding
windows on the north side of the Nave, in illustration of the "Noble Army
of Martyrs."
The Clerestory windows eastward of the Transepts offer the means of
representing the "Glorious Company of the Apostles."
In the east window in the Apse, below the Clerestory, are the figures of
St. Peter and St. Paul.
This window was enriched to the "Glory of God's House," and as a token of
respect and affection for the Venerable WILLIAM H. E. BENTINCK, M.A.,
Archdeacon of Westminster, who, in 1859, completed his fiftieth year as a
dignitary of this Collegiate Church.
The next thing observable is the stained glass in the three windows at the
east end, containing each two figures. In the left window, the first
figure represents our Saviour; the second, the Virgin Mary; the third,
Edward the Confessor; the fourth, Henry III.; the fifth, St. Augustine;
the sixth, Melitus, the Bishop of London, in the right hand window.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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