Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover art] "_It is with history as with travelling through a great country. The by-ways are often the most pleasant._" [Illustration: HENRY VII’s CHAPEL.] *The Story of Westminster Abbey* _Being some Account of that Ancient Foundation, its Builders and those who Sleep therein._ BY VIOLET BROOKE-HUNT AUTHOR OF "PRISONERS IN THE TOWER OF LONDON," "LORD ROBERTS," ETC. London JAMES NISBET & CO., LIMITED 21 BERNERS STREET 1902 *INTRODUCTION* Geoffrey’s father had gone to be the representative of the Mother Country in one of the distant Colonies, and as the boy had "more brains than body," to quote his house-master, his parents had taken him with them for a time, making a long journey first. When he came home to go to Eton, I found him a much-travelled person, brimming over with a host of new ideas and impressions, though otherwise the same original dreamy boy as ever. The inches he had added to his height and his chest testified to the success of the experiment on that score, while it was evident that his active little brain and his big eyes had made the most of their opportunities. "I seemed to be doing lessons all day," he confided to me, "only they weren’t lessons out of a book, and they seemed so much easier to remember. I wish I could always learn things by seeing them!" As the Christmas holidays had to be spent in London, I took Geoffrey at his word, and one morning we wandered down to Westminster Abbey for the ostensible purpose of seeing the Coronation Chair. Of course we saw a great deal more, and one visit led to another. "It’s not a bit like a churchyard, though it is full of monuments," was Geoffrey’s criticism one morning. "It is just a book about English history right from the very beginning; and please I want you to write it all down; because now I’ve seen the places and the monuments and the figures, I shall understand reading about them." I demurred, but Geoffrey had answers for most of my objections, and here is his view of the matter, imparted to me in fragments and at intervals during the day.