Against
This small stone chamber has a single squat pillar of red sand- stone, from the centre of which spring the sixteen rips that sup- port the floor of the Chapter House above, Vestments anti-altar frontuls are kept here.
157
The vestments for the next day's East Cloister door) will be open. Abbey. It has its own sub-station one upon the other, while urns of it then at night-time during services were carefully laid out, 4. The Service will at once be of the Auxiliary Fire Service in various shapes lle tossed about the second War, with the silent beautiful. shimmering brocades closed with the Blessing or the Dean's Yard.
here and there.
Abbey rising in darkness above it. sewn with threads of gold and Grice.
Every verger member of the James I was discovered, not Torches in hand, we entered the silver, and next to them, on four 3. In view of their special Air Choir, and workman, is trained with his wife, Anne of Denmark, Abbey, it was strange, to flash a kitchen chairs, were laid out with Raid Precautions duties, the Choir either in AFF or fire-fighting but lying side by side with Henry light that expired before it touch- military precision four firemen's will leave the Abbey with all re- The Abbey's head warden is Mr. VII and Elisabeth of York, in- ed the roof or died out halfway kits; belts, gum boots, gas-proof verent speed and proceed to their T. Hebron, the Registrar, and the credible companions in death. On up the columns of the nave. How clothing, tin hats and respirators. posts of duty.
chief fire-fighter is Mr.. Bishop, the another occasion .a startling black it was, how geric.
A more incongruous juxtaposiTM, 4. The congregation are urged Clerk of Works. The wardens glimpse was seen of the last royal #It's the chairs that make you tion has surely never before, been also to leave the Abbey and take number 27, the fire-fighters 36, burial in the Abbey, the tomb of jump," said one of the firemen seen, even in Westminster Abbey.
George II.
"They go off like pistols; at least,. cover in the Shelters provided in and the first-aid party 14.
"It was obvious that we had to He lies with his queen Caroline, it sounds like that when every the Pyx, where in ancient times Next, we entered the Chapel of the basement of the Methodist Central Hall, or in the basement organise our own defence," said in a huge black sarcophagus, the thing's quiet."
the head warden, "because no out- sides of their coffins removed, as Two firemen go up to the tri- the pyx, or box, containing the of the new Church House at the side person could be of much use he directed just before his death, forium on patrol together, and standard coin measures of gold to the Abbey. No one who does so that their remains might be then telephone down to the nave and silver were kept. To-day the 5. The Clergy and Vergers on not know it intimately could find mingled together.
to-report that all is well.
kits of thirty-five firemen haug duty will remain in the Abbey un- his way about; no fireman could Such dark, grim secrets of the In order that they can encircle there. til the congregation have had an find the hydrants, or make his vaults of Westminster, so differ- the church, a bridge has been built "Did you know that Westmins- opportunity to leave.
way up to the triforium, unless ent from the splendid marble high over the west door joining ter Abbey now has a hospital of N.B. The Public are advised he was familiar with the intri- monuments in the church above, the north side of the triforium to its own?" asked my guide. that the Abbey is not a safe place cacies of the building.
are always present in the mind of the south.
He unlocked the door to the during an Air Rald-and are "We know this wonderful the Abbey authorities, who pray The men then ascend to the roof Norman Undercroft and revealed strongly advised to take shelter church inside out, and we are that, whatever may happen to the and, after telephoning again, begin one of the most surprising of all as recommended above at any therefore the right and proper Abbey, the dead may not be de- their long and knee-aching de- the Abbey's transformations. In time when an Air Raid warning people to defend it from air at- secrated.
scent to earth. This continues at that solemn, fortress-like room is given.
tack."
"Six firemen are on duty all intervals all night long.
now stand rows of neat beds, Behind that notice is a story of As I walked round the Abbey, night," I was told, "constantly We climbed through a spiral ready for air-raid casualties. great interest to the whole world: I saw signs of war everywhere. patrolling the Abbey. Vergers, tube of stone to the triforium, and Behind a screen is a table sent. the story of the defence of West- Most of the important tombs have choirmen and others work a ward- encircled that high place, some out with surgical instruments and minster Abbey against air attack. been sandbagged.
ens' rota, and are on duty round times advancing carefully to the first aid appliances. Those chießy No national shine in England, The tomb of Edward the Con- the clock."
arches, like people on the edge responsible for this strange revival and few in the world, can be com- fessor, erected, says legend, on a I said that I should like to visit of a precipice, to shine our torches of what appears to be a monk's pared with the Abbey. Jeremy mound of earth prought from the the Abbey after dark: so in the down into the inky pool of the dormitory are Mrs. Barry, wife of Taylor called it an "acre sown with royal seed;" but it is not only a cemetery of kings, it is the place where statesmen, poets; writers, artists and inventors have been given national burial.
By H. V. Morton
of
Canon Barry, and Mrs. Bullock, the wife of Dr. Bullock, the Ab- bey's organist.
With tender thoughtfulness, the ladies have expelled from the Undercroft a singularly hideous To be buried in the Abbey is the
gargoyle and a huge stone coffin; last tribute the nation can offer
two objects which they rightly to a great man.
Holy Land is now invisible be- depth of the black-out that night, nave. A convincing ghost present feel air raid casualties should not The Abbey is also the cradle of neath its covering.
I returned and was admitted. I ed itself: a tall, spectral form with be asked to contemplate. Parliamentary Government. The The Coronation Chair used to was taken through the Jerusalem black eye-sockets,
A visit to an air raid shelter, a House of Commons struggled in stand a few yards away, with the Chamber by a guide with a torch; Futting my light on, I saw that building of reinforced concrete infancy, and grew up, în the Stone of Scone beneath it. Chair opening a little oak door, he led at intervals along the trifotitan with its own gas filter plant (and Chapter House of the Abbey. In and stone have been sent to the the way towards a wall of cold, hang suits of white asbestos cloth- designed so that at the end of the that place it met until 1547, when country and will not be seen again empty darkness.
ing with headpieces fitted with war it can be turned into a it crossed the road to St. Stephen's until the war is over.
-skull-like goggles.
garage;} completed my tour of "Do you know where you are?" They are not fond of ghost Westminster Abbey in war time. Chapel in the Palace of Westmins-
In the north aisle of Henry VII's he asked. ter.
Chapel, a mighty rampart of sand-
As I groped my way home In the Almonry of Westminster, bags conceals the tomb of Queen is empty space in front of us, but learn something of the inexpli- that nine centuries of life have
"I'm high up," I said, “and there stories in Westminster Abbey, but
a persistent inquirer can generally through the black-out, I thought near St. Anne's Chapel, Caxton Elizabeth. Mary, Queen of Sects, I can see nothing." set up his printing press; an asso- lies beneath a similar pile in the
cable things occasionally seen by shown the old church many ciation with the church that prin south aisle, and the splendid tomb overlooking the South aisle of the bers...
"You are in Abbot Islip's pew, levelheaded engineers and plum- strange things. ters have pertetuated in the word of Henry VII and Elizabeth
It has seen dead kings, lying "chapel" which they
use to de- York is completely submerged by his voice and called down into.the was last seen upon the eve of the glow of unbleached tapers; it has nave," he replied. Then he raised I believe "the Abbey ghost" stripped to the waist in the scribe any printing works or meet- sandbags. ing of printers.
darkness. "Hallo, there! Firemen marriage of the present King, and seen a Queen of England, Elisabeth So great and varied are
But nothing can be done tq Just shine your torches on the Un- Queen. It was kneeling in a brown Woodville, sitting the
"alone on the memories clustering about the safeguard the roof of the Henry known.
Warrior's Grave, will habit at the high altar, which was rushes all desolate and amazed” noble building, and so many are VII Chapel, which is one of the you?"
already prepared for the wedding seeking sanctuary from her the men buried there who belong most exquisite things in England: There was a movement in the next morning.
enemies; it has seen pomp and not to England alone, but to the a roof of stone carved with such dark and suddenly two thin beams. He was such a solid-looking ap- pride and piety go marching down world, that any disaster to West- audacious certainty that it seems of light wavered a moment, light- parition that the closed church the centuries in company with minster Abbey would cause a feel- to hang robbed of all weight, like ing up a few gaunt columns before was searched in the belief that creed and envy and treachery: it ing of rage and sorrow to pass festoons of intricate, creamy lace, coming to rest upon a blaze of red some stranger might have been has even known one murder. over the civilised earth.
But no matter how adequately poppies.
Jorked in. But no one was dis- Now at last something entirely When I went there the other sandbagged the monarchs may be, In the year 1920 I had seen the covered.
new has happened to it: something day, I heard a facinating the fact remains that, as the notice Unknown Soldier buried with Returning to ground level, we that neither king, abbot nor baron story of wartime London, states, "the Abbey is 'not a safe pomp and ceremony. I have seen found our way by torch flashes to could have imagined. We call it About a hundred people live in place during an Air Raid.” the grave many times since, but the Crypt, where I saw an as- A.R.P., or 1940's miserable gift to or about the Abbey precincts, and As I looked at the protection never shall I forget it as I saw tonishing sight.
history. spend their lives in attendance on provided, the thought of the pos- the church: Dean and Chapter, sible effect of a bomb upon an old choir, vergers, the Registrar and building honeycombed with tombs, his staff, the Clerk of Works and was present in my mind. Even his staff.
during burials in the Abbey, dur- All these people, some of them ing the moving of heavy menu- hardly known to each other by ments, the installation of heating, sight in peace-time, have been or in the course of ordinary re- drawn into a close community by novations, the thin crust of marble 'the danger of war, as if the pavement has now and then Abbey were once again a self- broken, affording a gruesome contained walled monastery ruled glimpse into the royal vaults be- by its abbot.
low.
And for war purposes, this is The coffin of Queen Elisabeth precisely what has happened. If has been seen lying, as it has lain any danger threatened the Abbey, since 1603, on top of that of her the church would be defended sister, Mary. The coffin of Mary, by the clergy. and laymen who Queen of Scots, lies in the middle work there.
of what Dean Stanley called a
So far as A.R.P. is concerned, startling and an awful scene, sur- it is a self-contained unit, uncon- rounded, as it is, by a vast pile of nected with Westminster's A.R.P., leaden coffins, some of full size, and the Abbey community has some the size of small children, only one object to preserve the all confusedly heaped together,
SOLUTION OF TO-DAY'S PUZZLE SZEZIA KANA QAND BUFARS RETORE ARAE OLEO OLAKOR AÐ ENN AIGE GIEL DIL FDE AUOZAZIOD DALLE NOG ALEN DAT ABB07 780 DZEL BERTE ERA Shinnung ABLEI FER BAR RENKA HOU NEOBDEB 000 120 CABOB21 ARLAR 70 BMA SKEJ TODE or BM PDTFIT BROKE AID ELE TAG ASPIRATE AGRY DANZINK HAIDE UONEENEA
ONR DEGER) DEF RBARO PRETO BR KITSRE RMOR DOA ZU ABUN SEADHON HAR NOL. PRANAT ORN QUFPIB SEA ALE MAREN ARANGTE UNA DETER ANNA ANN DAGA LUNA MEDINA RAD GANAS SANOAGGER SITIO ME AGA ROSA MAJE BEA RE BRZONE ZONE WASZK AIDEEE ANDRE ERİNE EAR GIMBA
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