It is told of Dr. Busby that on one occasion, when Charles II paid an unexpected visit to the School, he would not take off his hat in the King’s presence, for fear that if he did so the boys might think less of his authority.
Dr. Busby died in 1695, and was buried in the South Transept. His monument is very interesting, partly on account of the pathetic figure of Busby and the fine expression of the face.
One of his remarkable pupils is buried near him, and the monuments are quite close to one another. This pupil was Dr. Robert South, a great preacher, and Prebendary of Westminster. South could remember seeing Cromwell when he first appeared in Parliament, and heard Charles I prayed for in the Abbey on the very day of his death, “that black and eternally infamous day of the King’s murder.” Dr. South died in 1716.
There was always a great deal of Royalist feeling in the School, even all through the Commonwealth time, and a leading Independent went so far as to say that it would never be well with the nation until the School was suppressed, so strongly did the boys take the Royalist side.
Dean Atterbury, of whom we have already heard, was a Westminster scholar, and a pupil of Dr. Busby. As we know, he took a great part in the plots to bring back James II’s son, some of which plots went on in a secret chamber in the Deanery itself.
Richard Hakluyt, author of the Voyages and Travels; Warren Hastings, of Indian fame; and the well-known statesman, Lord John Russell, all formerly Westminster boys, have already been mentioned. In Statesmen’s Corner is the large monument of Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of England in 1756. He was also a Westminster scholar, and desired to be buried in the Abbey, “from the love which he bore to the place of his early education.” He died in 1793.
Charles Wesley and his elder brother Samuel were both educated at Westminster School. The memorial to John and Charles Wesley in the South Choir aisle has already been described. It is interesting to remember that Westminster School was in this way directly connected with one of the most important religious movements in England during the eighteenth century.
Among the great soldiers who were at Westminster School were Lord Lucan, the Marquis of Anglesey, and Lord Raglan. John Locke, the philosopher, Sir Christopher Wren, the great architect, and Edward Gibbon, author of the famous Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, were also Westminster boys.
And now our travels through the centuries and round the Abbey, with all its memories, must end. We have seen how that little Church on Thorney Isle has gradually grown into this stately Abbey, the home of all the great Anglo-Saxon race. We have seen too, at the same time, how the little English kingdom of the early Saxon days has expanded into a world-wide empire. It is for the children of Great Britain to see that the Abbey shall stand, not only for noble memories, but also for high hopes,—hopes, not only of riches and worldly success, but of the righteousness that exalteth a nation.
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