The Children's Story of Westminster AbbeyTroutbeck, G. E. (Georgina E.)
History
The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey
Troutbeck, G. E. (Georgina E.)
Westminster Abbey
Next to Darwin lies the famous astronomer, Sir John Frederick Herschel,
who died in 1871. Another astronomer, John Couch Adams, discoverer of
the planet Neptune, has a memorial in this same north aisle. Close by
are memorials to James Prescott Joule, who discovered certain laws
connected with heat and electricity, and to Sir George Gabriel Stokes.
A little farther down the aisle is the grave of the great geologist, Sir
Charles Lyell, who died in 1875. His bust is placed near the tablet in
memory of Dr. John Woodward, who lived in the eighteenth century, and
who has been called the “father of English Geology.”
On the other side of the Nave is a memorial to William Buckland, Dean of
Westminster, who was twice President of the Geological Society, and
wrote many books about geology. In the South Transept, near the monument
of Dr. Busby, is the grave of William Spottiswoode, who was President of
the Royal Society and Printer to Queen Victoria. He died in 1883.
One of the most famous men of science of our own day, William Thomson,
Lord Kelvin, rests close to Newton. He was born in 1824, and died in
1907, and devoted his long life to the pursuit of science,—to what is
called “applied science” as well as to speculative science. We owe to
Lord Kelvin many of the wonderful inventions now in quite common use,—in
navigation, in telegraphing under the ocean, and in other ways.
One of the most important changes in the life of the whole nation was
brought about in the nineteenth century by the introduction of railway
travelling. Those of us who are quite young, and have hardly ever heard
of a time when there were no railways, cannot realise or understand how
great this change must be.
Even railways have their memorials in the Abbey, for in the Nave we find
the grave of Robert Stephenson, who died in 1859, engineer of the
Birmingham Railway and of the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits.
He is buried next to the famous engineer, Thomas Telford, who died in
1834, and whose chief works were the Caledonian Canal, the Menai Bridge,
and the plan for the inland navigation of Sweden. There is a large
statue of Telford in St. Andrew’s Chapel. Not far from the grave of
Robert Stephenson is a window in his memory. It is not at all beautiful,
as it represents railway bridges and other things which do not look well
in a stained-glass window,—but it is certainly interesting.
Near this are windows in memory of the great engineers (1) Richard
Trevithick, who died in 1833, the inventor of the high-pressure
steam-engine, and of the first real railway engine; (2) Brunel, who died
in 1859, and who built the largest steamships known in his time, the
_Great Eastern_ and the _Great Western_; and (3) John Locke, who died in
1860, and who designed the “Crewe Engine.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account