WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Historical Description
OF
WESTMINSTER ABBEY;
ITS
Monuments and Curiosities.
PRINTED FOR THE VERGERS IN THE ABBEY,
BY JAS. TRUSCOTT AND SON, SUFFOLK LANE, CANNON STREET, CITY.
OF ADMISSION.
The North and West doors are open to Visitors. Guides are in attendance,from nine until six every day, except Sunday, Christmas Day,and Good Friday. The Abbey is not open to Visitors after the Afternoon Serviceduring the Winter Months.
THE SERVICES.
On Sunday the entrance to the Abbey is by the North and South Transepts.Divine Service at 8 A.M., at 10 A.M.,and at 3 P.M.; and from Easterto the end of July, at 7 P.M. At the usual Sunday Services, and on Saintand Holy Days, at 10 A.M., there is a Sermon. The Holy Communion iscelebrated on the first Sunday in the month, at the 10 A.M. Service, andon other Sundays (except when otherwise ordered) at 8 A.M.
The names of the several Chapels, beginning from the south cross, and sopassing round to the north cross, are in order as follows:—1. St.Benedict; 2. St. Edmund; 3. St. Nicholas; 4. Henry VII.; 5. St. Paul; 6.St. Edward the Confessor; 7. St. John; 8. Islip’s Chapel, dedicated to St.John the Baptist; 9. St. John, St. Michael, and St. Andrew. The three lastare now laid together. The Chapel of Edward the Confessor stands, as itwere, in the centre, and is enclosed in the body of the Church. Keep onyour right, and the Chapel of St. Benedict is adjoining the Tombs-gate, inwhich Chapel several Deans were buried. Dean Ireland was buried in frontof Camden’s monument, in the same grave with Mr. Gifford, his associatethrough life.
⁂ Several men intercept all persons as they approach theAbbey, to show them the Courts of Law, Westminster Hall, &c., whichare open all day; persons attending to them are oft-times preventedfrom seeing the Church for that day, as the hours of serviceintervene.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Of the Foundation of the Abbey.
f the Founding of an Abbey on Thorney Island, where that of Westminsternow stands, there are so many miraculous stories related by monkishwriters, that the recital of them now would hardly be endured. Even ther