The Children of Westminster Abbey: Studies in English HistoryKingsley, Rose Georgina
History
The Children of Westminster Abbey: Studies in English History
Kingsley, Rose Georgina
Children -- England -- London; Westminster Abbey -- Biography
So the Dormitory was doomed, and was re-built by Lord Burlington after
designs by Sir Christopher Wren, in the College Garden--a lovely space
of cool green beyond the Little Cloisters--where it stands to this day.
The school of Westminster has been always intimately connected with the
Abbey Church, since the days when the abbot sat on one side of the Great
Cloisters with his monks, and the master of the novices on the other
with his disciples. And quaint customs still survive from early days in
which the Chapter and the Scholars take part more or less.
Across the Great School runs the famous Bar, over which it is the duty
of the college cook to toss a pancake on Shrove Tuesday "to be scrambled
for by the boys and presented to the Dean." Once a year the Dean and
Chapter "receive in the Hall the former Westminster Scholars, and hear
the recitation of the Epigrams, which have contributed for so many years
their lively comments on the events of each passing generation,"[121] a
relic of the old custom by which the Dean and Prebendaries dined in the
College Hall--the ancient Refectory--with all the School. Every Sunday
and Saint's day during the school year, the Westminster Scholars troop
into the Choir in their white surplices in front of the Abbey body, and
take the seats which have been theirs by right since the coronation of
James the Second. And in modern days their shouts from those seats have
testified the assent of the people of England to the sovereign's
election in the Coronation Service.
And now from the shouts of the young, vigorous, active boys of
Westminster, let us turn once more to the Abbey. In its still dim
aisles, under the vaulted, misty roof, let us bid a tender and loving
farewell to its children--the Holy Innocents who have "gone
before"--whose sweet memories live in the minds of men; whose souls are
safe in God's good keeping; and whose ashes rest in England's Pantheon.
FOOTNOTES:
[109] Strickland. "Lives of the Queens of England." Vol. VII. p. 237.
[110] "Memoirs of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester." By Jenkin
Lewis. p. 7.
[111] "Memoirs of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester." By Jenkin
Lewis. p. 8.
[112] Memoirs. Jenkin Lewis. p. 8.
[113] Memoir. Jenkin Lewis. p. 16.
[114] "Impartial History of Queen Anne's Reign." Bishop White Kennett.
p. 39.
[115] Jenkin Lewis.
[116] Memoir. Jenkin Lewis. p. 100.
[117] Bishop White Kennet. "Impartial History of Queen Anne's Reign." p.
39.
[118] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey." Dean Stanley, p. 196.
[119] Walton's Life. Vol. II. p. 24.
[120] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley." p. 536
[121] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey." Dean Stanley, p. 481.
GLOSSARY.
=Aisle=, the lateral divisions of a church, on each side of the nave.
From Aile--a wing. p. 99.
=Almonry=, a room where alms were distributed. In Abbeys generally a
stone building near the church. p. 99.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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