ILLUSTRATIONS.

(From rare old Prints and Photographs.)

	Page.
Westminster Abbey.—Front	[Frontis].
Westminster Abbey.—North Entrance	[12]
Shrine of Edward the Confessor.—At left, Tomb of Henry the Third	[25]
Dean Stanley	[37]
Chapel of Henry the Fifth	[45]
Effigy of John of Eltham	[58]
Tomb of John of Eltham, St. Edmund's Chapel	[61]
Ancient Canopy of the Tomb of John of Eltham	[67]
Tomb of William of Windsor and his Sister Blanche	[74]
Edward the Fifth	[83]
Memorial Urn in Henry the Seventh's Chapel	[101]
Interior of the Chapel of Henry the Seventh	[107]
Exterior of the Chapel of Henry the Seventh	[113]
Edward the Sixth.—From a Painting by Holbein	[119]
Queen Elizabeth.—From Painting in the English National Portrait Gallery	[137]
Monument to Miss Elizabeth Russell	[147]
The Monument to Queen Elizabeth in the North Aisle	[157]
The Cradle Tomb	[165]
The Monuments of Princess Sophia and Princess Mary	[171]
Entrance to Bramshill House	[179]
Bramshill House, from the North	[189]
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales	[203]
Westminster Abbey, from the North	[215]
Tomb of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham	[227]
Lord Francis Villiers.—After Vandyck	[235]
The Effigies of the Lady Anna	[245]
Henry, Duke of Gloucester	[253]
Princess Elizabeth in Prison	[261]
Westminster Abbey, looking toward the Altar.—From Etching by H. Toussaint	[273]
The Old Dormitory at Westminster School	[279]
Dining Hall, Westminster School	[285]
A Westminster Boy	[289]

THE CHILDREN OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

CHAPTER I.

THE BUILDING OF THE ABBEY.

Twelve hundred years ago, in the reign of King Sebert the Saxon, a poor fisherman called Edric, was casting his nets one Sunday night into the Thames. He lived on the Isle of Thorns, a dry spot in the marshes, some three miles up the river from the Roman fortress of London. The silvery Thames washed against the island's gravelly shores. It was covered with tangled thickets of thorns. And not so long before, the red deer, and elk and fierce wild ox had strayed into its shades from the neighboring forests.[1]