WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Historical Description
OF
WESTMINSTER ABBEY;
ITS
Monuments and Curiosities.
PRINTED FOR THE VERGERS IN THE ABBEY,
BY JAS. TRUSCOTT AND SON, SUFFOLK LANE, CANNON STREET, CITY.
OF ADMISSION.
The North and West doors are open to Visitors. Guides are in attendance, from nine until six every day, except Sunday, Christmas Day, and Good Friday. The Abbey is not open to Visitors after the Afternoon Service during the Winter Months.
THE SERVICES.
On Sunday the entrance to the Abbey is by the North and South Transepts. Divine Service at 8 A.M., at 10 A.M., and at 3 P.M.; and from Easter to the end of July, at 7 P.M. At the usual Sunday Services, and on Saint and Holy Days, at 10 A.M., there is a Sermon. The Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday in the month, at the 10 A.M. Service, and on other Sundays (except when otherwise ordered) at 8 A.M.
The names of the several Chapels, beginning from the south cross, and so passing round to the north cross, are in order as follows:—1. St. Benedict; 2. St. Edmund; 3. St. Nicholas; 4. Henry VII.; 5. St. Paul; 6. St. Edward the Confessor; 7. St. John; 8. Islip’s Chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist; 9. St. John, St. Michael, and St. Andrew. The three last are now laid together. The Chapel of Edward the Confessor stands, as it were, in the centre, and is enclosed in the body of the Church. Keep on your right, and the Chapel of St. Benedict is adjoining the Tombs-gate, in which Chapel several Deans were buried. Dean Ireland was buried in front of Camden’s monument, in the same grave with Mr. Gifford, his associate through life.
⁂ Several men intercept all persons as they approach the Abbey, to show them the Courts of Law, Westminster Hall, &c., which are open all day; persons attending to them are oft-times prevented from seeing the Church for that day, as the hours of service intervene.