File:Westminster Abbey - its memories and its message (1921) (14587164577).jpg

Identifier: westminsterabbey00stur (find matches)
Title: Westminster Abbey : its memories and its message
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Sturgeon, Mary C. (Mary Carol), 1943- Weirter, Louis, b. 1873, ill
Subjects: Westminster Abbey
Publisher: New York : F. A. Stokes, (1921)
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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hers which teem withsignificance. It does not even require a visible monument,sometimes, to come home to us with force, as for examplewhen we stand in the Chapel of St Benedict and reflect on him,the founder of the Benedictine Order. There is no tomb forhim, of course, in our cold northern island; yet but for himthe Abbey would not have existed, and the whole of Westerncivilization would have been a different thing. Edward III in1355 brought here from France the precious relic of the saintshead ; and the Abbey long treasured it as one of its holiestpossessions. Or turning to quite another mood of this protean life, onecan step into St Michaels Chapel, and, still without the aid ofany monument, realize that there was buried Sir WilliamTrussel, Kt., Speaker to the House of Commons at thedeposing of King Edward II. ^ A sternly echoing voice, this,declaring to a decadent King the peoples will that he shouldabdicate. A very English voice, too, as Edward II knew well, ^ Stow. Ed. Strype.168
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LIFE, AND THE TOMBS and which may still be recognized, since it is by no meanssilenced yet. Thus, too, from the grave of Wilberforce andthe statue of Buxton in the north choir aisle, figures hardlyenhaloed yet in memory because they are not far enough awayin time; and who dwell rather quaintly in the mind becauseour funny old grandfathers used to tell of how they foughtthe slave trade—from that spot rings the crusading spirit ofEngland that is older than the Crusades and young as thismorning. So one might go on, almost indefinitely; and indeed it isa subject to return to. But since our theme is for the momenttombs, it will be better to concentrate on a group of two orthree which pre-eminently embody the English spirit. Onecasts about for a choice, therefore; and the first thing to strikeus is how rich a field we have to select from. Also, how little,on the whole, the tombs have suffered. People who know mostabout the national burying-places of other races say that thereis none like

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