Westminster Abbey: Chapel and Shrine of Edward the Confessor
Westminster Abbey: Henry VII’s Chapel
with the finest lace of the period. When we have recovered composure and breath, and can look around, we find ourselves in the presence of a series of most interesting and curious portraits. The wooden presses, with glass fronts, are, to judge from the pattern of the hinges, of about the time of the monarch whose effigy was the first to confront us. The rest, taken chronologically, consist of ten figures beginning with Queen Elizabeth and ending with Lord Nelson, but neither of these, the first and last, were really funeral effigies.”—(W. J. L.)
Directly behind the Confessor’s Chapel we come to Henry VII.’s Chapel, originally designed to hold the remains of Henry VI., who was buried at Windsor, but the plan was not carried out.
“At the entrance to the chapel we are brought to what Dean Stanley calls a ‘solemn architectural pause.’ Here we may study three distinct architectural periods. ‘First,’ as Mr. Loftie says, ‘there is the early work of Henry III., who, it will be remembered, made a Lady-Chapel here before he recommenced the rebuilding of the Confessor’s church. Secondly, the next pier shows us the work done when the body of Henry V. was brought hither from France in 1422. Lastly, alongside of these two is the first column of the new and gorgeous structure with which Henry VII. replaced the Lady-Chapel of Henry III.’ The dimness of the approach materially enhances the effect of the superb building beyond, and it cannot be doubted that this comparative gloom, so far from being an accident, was deliberately intended. The building of the chapel occupied the first twelve years of the Sixteenth Century. It measures inside 104 feet 6 inches long by 69 feet 10 inches broad, and consists of a nave and aisles of four bays, the nave terminating in five small polygonal chapels, the style throughout being Perpendicular. The entrance is under a large central and two smaller side arches, which have six bronze doors of superb design and splendid workmanship, in which a number of Henry VII.’s devices appear.”—(C. H.)