Westminster (London, England) -- Description and travel
Within, every spare foot of wall-space is utilized, and, besides being a
perfect storehouse of memorials of departed Guardsmen, the chapel is
full of rich but unobtrusive decoration. The sweep of the high pillars
and arches of light stone relieves the richness of the mural
ornamentation. The side-walls of the nave are covered by an arcade
enclosing panels of marble mosaic. The heads of the arches are filled in
by terra-cotta groups in high relief, representing Biblical subjects.
Between and below the panels are tablets to the memory of those who have
served in the Guards.
Between the windows are other tablets, of which the most interesting is
that inscribed: "Soldier, Sportsman, Author, George Whyte Melville's
memory is here recorded by his old friends and comrades, the Coldstream
Guards." The chancel screen and pulpit are of white Sicilian marble,
with handsome panels and a base of Belgian black. In the spandril of the
arch on the south side of the chancel is a marble medallion of the Duke
of Wellington, presented by his son, and in the corresponding position
on the north side one of the Duke of Marlborough, presented by the Earl
of Cadogan. The stalls are of stained oak. The altar is of oak, with
walnut panels and ebony shafts. The reredos is lined by beautiful glass
mosaics, and the semi-dome is mosaic work to match. This sounds a mere
catalogue, but it is quite impossible to give any idea of this
singularly richly-decorated chapel without descending to detail. The
tattered colours used at the Crimea and Waterloo hang from their staves
on the pillars. Anyone is admitted to parade service on Sunday mornings
by ticket, to be procured beforehand by writing to the chaplain.
Queen Anne's Gate was formerly Queen Square. At a corner stands a statue
of Queen Anne without date. Many of the houses show quaintly carved
porches with wooden brackets and pendants, and are obviously of the date
which the name implies. Jeremy Bentham lived in Queen Square Place, now
covered by part of Queen Anne's Mansions, for fifty years of his life,
and here he died in 1832. His skeleton, clothed as in life, is now
possessed by University College, London. His house was called The
Hermitage. His friend and disciple, James Mill, came to be his tenant in
1814, in what was then 1 Queen's Square, now 40 Queen Anne's Gate. Here
he completed his great History of India, published in 1818.
After Mill, Sir John Bowring, first editor of the _Westminster Review_,
established by Bentham, occupied the house now numbered 40. Peg
Woffington also lived in Queen Square, which was a fashionable place of
residence in the last century, a reputation it still retains. Both Great
and Little Queen Streets partake of the old-world look of the
seventeenth century, and show quaint keystones and carving of various
designs over the doorways.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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