DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0051
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
19
CHAPTER THE SECOND.
FROM THE FIRST FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH TO ITS RESTORATION
IN THE TIME OF KING EDGAR.
In the preceding chapter it has been attempted to authenticate, or at least support,
the opinion, by a succession of admissible probabilities, that the Church of West-
minster was not erected, towards the latter end of the second century, by a King
Lucius, as some authors have maintained; nor by Sebert, King of the East Saxons,
in the seventh, as the generality of writers on the subject have asserted; but
most probably towards the middle of the eighth, by some person whose name has
not been transmitted to our times.
It derived its name from its situation being west of London, or the episcopal
Church of St. Paul; and, on its first erection, was a small building. The place
on which it stands, though now a part of the main land, is generally supposed to
have been an island at that early period. Such a circumstance will not appear
improbable to any one who will, under this notion, attend to the situation of the
church. Where the canal in St. James's Park now is, there might have been a
branch of the Thames, or a large ditch, which, especially at high water, might
have given the spot an insular character. There were also ditches near the church,
which inclosed the monastery, with some streets and lanes on the north side of it, and
were supplied with water by the tide: but they were artificial, and made at a period
long after the first erection of a monastic edifice; most probably for the purposes
B 2
19
CHAPTER THE SECOND.
FROM THE FIRST FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH TO ITS RESTORATION
IN THE TIME OF KING EDGAR.
In the preceding chapter it has been attempted to authenticate, or at least support,
the opinion, by a succession of admissible probabilities, that the Church of West-
minster was not erected, towards the latter end of the second century, by a King
Lucius, as some authors have maintained; nor by Sebert, King of the East Saxons,
in the seventh, as the generality of writers on the subject have asserted; but
most probably towards the middle of the eighth, by some person whose name has
not been transmitted to our times.
It derived its name from its situation being west of London, or the episcopal
Church of St. Paul; and, on its first erection, was a small building. The place
on which it stands, though now a part of the main land, is generally supposed to
have been an island at that early period. Such a circumstance will not appear
improbable to any one who will, under this notion, attend to the situation of the
church. Where the canal in St. James's Park now is, there might have been a
branch of the Thames, or a large ditch, which, especially at high water, might
have given the spot an insular character. There were also ditches near the church,
which inclosed the monastery, with some streets and lanes on the north side of it, and
were supplied with water by the tide: but they were artificial, and made at a period
long after the first erection of a monastic edifice; most probably for the purposes
B 2