File:Westminster abbey, its architecture, history and monuments (1914) (14775745794).jpg

Identifier: westminsterabbey02prat (find matches)
Title: Westminster abbey, its architecture, history and monuments
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Pratt, Helen Marshall
Subjects: Westminster Abbey Great Britain -- Kings and rulers
Publisher: New York : Duffield & company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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afternoon they came again to meet for prayer until six. The chapter house is spacious, complete, rich in the colour of its modern windows, and well-restored. It was built by Henry III, probably about 1250: but its use as a chapter house exclusively did not long con-tinue: for in the time of Edward III it became the regular meeting-place for the House of Commons and so continueduntil, in 1547, they removed to the Old Palace of Westminster. At the Dissolutionof the Monastery in 1540, it passed into the hands of the Crown and has neverbeen returned to the use for which it was originally built. The chapter now meets in the Jerusalem Chamber. The present daily guardians of the chapter house are in the employ, not of the Abbey but of the British Government. Between the years 1547 and 1865, the house was used asa storehouse for State Records. Its height was then divided by a floor: and wooden galleries and cupboards for holding papers almost entirely concealed the beauty of its arcades. The roof and all 710
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The CHAPTER House The Cloister and Chapter House the windows but one are modern. In 1865, by Dean Stanleys efforts, it was thoroughly restored.* The room is octagonal, is fifty-eight feet in diameter (Lincoln is sixty feet andSalisbury fifty-eight feet), and has a vaulted roof fifty-six feet high, supported by a central column. Under this room is a small Norman crypt which belonged to the Norman chapter house of Edward theConfessors church and was long used asa Royal Treasury. The walls of the chapter house are five feet thick. In six of the eight sides are large windows, modern copies of the originals, containing modern glass. A series of beautiful arcaded stone seats or stalls with trefoiled heads runs below the windows, where the monks sat in chapter: five stalls at the east end, richer than the others, were for the use of the Abbot, Prior and other officers. The fine old Tiling is almost unique in England in its age, extent and degree of preservation. Extensive remains of mural painting are

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