HARVARD LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF DEAN STANLEY, WHOSE WALKS AND TALKS WITH CHILDREN IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY CAN NEVER BE EFFACED FROM THE GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF ONE WHO AS A CHILD HAD THE HAPPINESS OF ENJOYING THEM. TALES FROM WESTMINSTER ABBEY. CHAPTER I. A GREAT many years ago, when I was quite a small child, I was taken with some other children over Westminster Abbey by Dean Stanley, who was then the Dean of Westminster. Some of you may have read a book called "Tom Brown's School Days," and if so you will remember Tom's great friend, Arthur, who began his school life a lonely and home-sick little boy, but who as the years went on came to be looked up to and liked almost more than any other boy at Rugby. "George Arthur" this boy is called in the book, but his real name was Arthur Stanley, and when he grew up he became a clergyman, and was for many years Dean of Westminster. He wrote a great many books, and one all about Westminster Abbey ; for he knew every corner and part of this great church, and was full of stories about the great people who are buried here, and the kings and queens who were crowned here. There was nothing he liked better than taking people over the Abbey, and any one who had the happiness of going with him, as I did, and of hearing him, would always remember some, at any rate, of the stories he told. He died in 1881, and as none of you can ever see or hear him, standing in the Abbey surrounded by children, and telling them all that he thought would interest them, I am going to take out of my memory, and out of this book of his,* just as much of what he used to say as I hope will help you to enjoy what you will see there. *"Memorials of Westminster Abbey." |