St. Paul's Church, which is built in the form of a Greek cross, is the most prominent object in London. It measures 514 feet in length, 286 in breadth, and 370 in height, to the topmost pinnacle. There are three porticoes at as many entrances, on the north, west, and south. That on the west is the principal, with twelve lofty Corinthian pillars below, and the angles above crowned with handsome bell towers, the size of ordinary church towers or steeples. The great bell of St. Paul's is only rung when a member of the royal family dies, and its fine deep tones can be distinctly heard at a distance of several miles. The great bell weighs four and a half tons, and is ten feet in diameter. Westminster Abbey is situated nearly opposite the houses of Parliament, and is open to inspection on the north and east, but on the west it is much crowded upon by dwelling-houses. In very early times this spot of ground was a small insular tract, surrounded by the waters of the Thames, and called Thorny Island. A monastic institution was founded here on the introduction of Christianity into Britain. An Abbey was raised upon the site of the ruined monastic building, under Edward the Confessor. The ground plan, as usual, bore the form of the cross. Rights and endowments were granted, and the edifice assumed a great degree of architectural grandeur. It[263] had become the place for the inauguration of the English monarchs, and William the Conqueror was crowned here with great pomp and solemnity, in 1066. Henry III. enlarged the abbey, and the building continued in the state in which he left it until Henry VII. added a chapel, built in the florid Gothic style, on which the greatest skill of the architect and the sculptor was displayed; exhibiting the most splendid structure of the age, and so highly esteemed, that it was enjoined that the remains of royalty alone should be interred within its walls. During the reign of Henry VIII., of its revenues, Henry raised Westminster to the dignity of a city, and its abbey was constituted a cathedral. It was, however, afterwards re-united to London in 1550. Westminster Abbey, during the reign of William and Mary, was thoroughly repaired, and the towers added at the western entrance, under the direction of the celebrated Sir Christopher Wren, to whom London owes so much of its architectural grandeur. The length of the abbey is 416 feet; breadth, at the transept, 203 feet; nave 102 feet; height of the west tower 225 feet. The exterior measurement, including Henry VII.'s Chapel, is 530 feet.