The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey

by G. E. Troutbeck

Around the venerable and stately church, where all our Kings, from Edward the Confessor onwards, have been crowned, and where many of our sovereigns and most of our famous men are buried, are memories which speak to us even of the Roman rule in Britain, taking us back nearly to the days of brave Queen Boadicea, whose statue stands on the bridge close by.

Then follow memories of the wild Saxon days, of the conversion of England by St. Augustine, of the Danes, the Normans, the Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, and of many others.

We are reminded too, of the signing of Magna Charta, of the Barons’ War, of the Crusades, of the beginning of the House of Commons, of the long Hundred Years’ War with France, of the Wars of the Roses, of the great Civil War, of the rise of our Indian and Colonial Empire, and indeed of all the important things that have happened in our country until this very twentieth century, when the Abbey is still just as much a part of our history as it ever was.

If we want to see and understand how this is, we can learn a good deal from the history of the building itself, that is, of how, when, and where it was built.

To begin with, what do we mean when we speak of the “Abbey”?

An abbey was really a place where a number of monks or nuns lived, under the rule of an abbot or abbess,—the name abbot being taken from “abbas,” the Syriac word for father. The actual church was only a part of the “Abbey,” to which belonged many other buildings, besides gardens, orchards, fields and farms, and often large estates in various places.

The Abbey of Westminster was for monks of the Benedictine Order. The Abbot of Westminster was a very great person, and many well known places belonged to the Abbey, such, for instance, as Covent Garden (the Convent Garden) and Hyde Park, besides others which were far away from London. Windsor at one time belonged to the Abbey of Westminster, but the Conqueror wanted it himself, and so made the monks exchange Windsor for land in other places.

The Church, then, which we now call the Abbey, was the Abbey Church of St. Peter in Westminster. Since the days of Queen Elizabeth, the proper title of the church has been “The Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster,” but every one likes to keep the old name, and to call it Westminster Abbey. As we shall see later on, a good deal still remains of the old monastic buildings besides the church. Such are the beautiful cloisters, the Chapter-House, and parts of the library and dormitory.

Now, as to where the Abbey is built. It stands on what was long ago a desolate little island in the Thames, an island which was overgrown with great thorns and thickets, and in which wild beasts, such as the wild ox and the huge red deer, used to roam about. It was perhaps not unlike the Isle of Athelney, where King Alfred hid from his enemies and made his plans.

It is interesting to remember that the great Cathedral Church of Paris, Notre Dame, is also built on an island,—a little island in the river Seine. In those days, when there were so few roads, it was a great matter to be near a big river, where boats and ships could go up and down, and so we find that most important cities, like Rome, Paris, Vienna, and London, are built on the banks of rivers.