Remember the whole "The End" business? ...well, that wasn't true. It is not the end. However, I don't think I can find the right words to describe the Abbey. I feel totally and utterly
inadequate to do any sort of justice to the majestic, mysterious,
medieval, spiritual, historical, archaeological, exhausting, Gothic, awe-inspiring grandeur of the place.
But you know me, I will at least try.
When we stepped
into Westminster Abbey, we were stepping into a building that was seven
centuries old, with some areas even older than that. We stepped on stone floors
that were uneven in places, worn shiny by the footsteps of monks and worshipers; wooden floors that creaked and groaned with every step we
took; floors of marble, with a sheen as glossy as glass; mosaic floors with a story for anyone who had eyes to see.
Looking
up, the ceiling absolutely soars above us. Here in the nave, the space
is vast with a ceiling of 101 feet high. I feel insignificant here,
unimportant, yes, and so very, very young. Colored glass windows stain
the sunlight that streams in on this bright fall day.
There
are many little chapels and rooms to view and explore. In every nook
and cranny there are statues, effigies and memorials to those deemed
illustrious enough
to be memorialized here. Over three thousand people are buried here.
Kings are buried here. KINGS.... and QUEENS...dozens of them, in fact. History itself is buried
here and the Abbey tells the tales to those who listen.
The
first king to be buried here was Edward the Confessor in 1066 only days after the consecration of the abbey. He was
the son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma. (I am not even joking here) In
fact, he was the king who founded the cathedral and monastery. Edward was well-loved by his people and even regarded as a saint before he was formally canonized.
The
Lady's chapel was poignant, formal and ornate . Two daughters, princesses and then
queens, both fathered by King Henry VIII, half sisters whose lives
were spent in bitter enmity with each other, due largely to their father's poor
choices in his quest to beget a son. The two queens are
buried together with the following inscription in Latin and translated here for your convenience (though not by me):
"Partners both in throne and grave, here we sleep,
Elizabeth and Mary, two sisters,
in hope of one Resurrection."
A floor stone is near the monument to Queen Elizabeth and is thus inscribed:
“Near the tomb of Mary and Elizabeth
remember
before God all those who divided at the Reformation
by different
convictions
laid down their lives for Christ and conscience’ sake”.
Whatever they were to each other in life, their earthly remains lie side by side...each one the child of a mortal, fallible king.
Not only are there kings and queens buried here, every monarch since
1066 has had his/her coronation ceremony here and many royal weddings
and other royal occasions have taken place here. It's like walking through a history book.
Near
the Cloisters is the Chapter House, an enormous octagonal
shaped room, with walls of stained glass windows, that reach all the way to the
impossibly high ceiling. Here it was that the monks met for daily
prayers, readings from the Rule of St. Benedict (they were Benedictine
monks, after all) and daily planning sessions for the work of the day.
Beneath the stained glass windows is a plaque, crediting the
workmen/artists: "In the handiwork of their craft is their prayer."
To enter the Chapter House, you must pass through the Anglo-Saxon door, an ancient oak door, the oldest door in
England, dating from the time of the founding of the Abbey, one thousand
and more years ago. The door was dated by a scientific process known as ‘dendrochronology which is simply the dating of timber by analyzing it's growth rings. All the wood in this
door was from the same tree and scientists can tell the tree was growing
in the years 924-1030. The ancient age and history of this door was intriguing to me. Scholars suspect it was one of the main doors in the
original Saxon abbey. And I walked through that door.
No photography was allowed in any of the areas of the Abbey I have heretofore described. Which made it a good news/bad news scenario. Bad news because I couldn't photograph all that intrigued and inspired me. Good news because if photography had been allowed, I very well might have skipped the rest of our plans for this day in London and still not have had the time to photograph everything I would have wanted to.
However, our next stop was the Cloisters and photography was allowed there!
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