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
It is a beautiful place to rest in--this quiet chapel, with its walls
all covered with traceries, and great stone bosses suspended aloft in
the blue mist of the roof. Over the stalls in the central chapel hang
the old banners of the Knights of the Bath with famous names written
upon them in letters of gold--names of warriors, explorers, statesmen,
lawyers, men of science. Glints of deep red, blue and amber from
Storied windows richly dight,
flash through the dusky air. And above the tombs of the two young
princesses is the urn containing the bones of Edward the Fifth and
Richard Duke of York; making this chapel, as Dean Stanley aptly says,
"The Innocents' Corner."
FOOTNOTES:
[48] Memorials of Westminster Abbey. p. 181.
[49] Fuller's Worthies.
[50] Sandford. Kings and Queens of England. Book VII. p. 577.
[51] "Princesses of England." M. A. E. Green. Vol. VI. p. 91.
[52] Nichols. Vol. I. p. 572.
[53] Stow's Chronicle, p. 862.
[54] Green's Princesses, p. 92.
[55] Nichols. Vol. I. p. 573.
[56] Green's Princesses. p. 94.
[57] Funeral Sermon for Prs. Mary, by G. Leech, preached in Henry the
Seventh's Chapel, Sept. 23, 1607.
CHAPTER VIII.
HENRY FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES.
Among the Hampshire moors, covered with sheets of purple heather and
dark forests of Scotch firs, stands a grand old house built of red brick
with stone facings. It is a noble mansion, with its saloons and
libraries; its great hall where the Yule log burns at Christmas on the
hearth of a vast fireplace; its wide oaken staircases, secret doors and
passages; its "Long Gallery" running the whole width of the building;
its wonderful ceilings fretted with patterns and pendants of
plaster-work; its oak-panelled bedrooms; its attics big enough to house
a whole regiment. Outside there are terraces and lawns of finest turf,
where Troco and bowls used to be played nearly three hundred years ago;
and walled gardens opening one into the other with beautiful
wrought-iron gates of intricate pattern. The Virginian creeper climbs
over the house, and veils the stone mullions of the deep embayed windows
in a delicate tangled tracery of stems and leaves. Groups of tall red
brick chimneys rise above the gables of the roof. And crowning the
splendid western front--above the great entrance through a triple arched
porch, above the exquisite oriel window that hangs out from the walls of
the chapel-room--the Prince of Wales's three feathers, the badge that
Edward the Black Prince won at Cressy, are carved in stone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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