DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41191#0043
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. A PAPER
WRITTEN FOR THE SOCIETY FOR
THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT
BUILDINGS IN JUNE, 1893.
We feel ourselves compelled to call the attention
of the public to the present condition and imme/
diate prospects of the Church of St. Peter atW est/
minster: and this seems to us to be all the more
necessary, becausethe public have scarcely under/
stood the really important considerations which
should be kept in mind in dealing with this piece
of national property. The idea that is current in
most people's minds seems to be that, apart from
its function as a place of worship, it is to be used
insomewayorotherasa kind of registrationoffice
for the names of men whom the present genera/
tion considers eminent in various capacities: the
method of so registering them beingthe placing
of a monument to their honour in the church and
sometimesburyingtheircorpsesbeneaththepave/
ment. That this strange notion, which seems to
have first taken root about the end of the seven/
teenth century, and was in full vigour all through
the eighteenth and the earlier part of this century,
is still alive in most men's minds, is clear from this
fact, that now, when even the Dean and Chapter
of Westminster have declared that burials in the
Abbey must cease, & when it is clear to the most
casual observer that the Church is crowded to ab/
surdity with specimens of the gravestone/cutter's
35
WRITTEN FOR THE SOCIETY FOR
THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT
BUILDINGS IN JUNE, 1893.
We feel ourselves compelled to call the attention
of the public to the present condition and imme/
diate prospects of the Church of St. Peter atW est/
minster: and this seems to us to be all the more
necessary, becausethe public have scarcely under/
stood the really important considerations which
should be kept in mind in dealing with this piece
of national property. The idea that is current in
most people's minds seems to be that, apart from
its function as a place of worship, it is to be used
insomewayorotherasa kind of registrationoffice
for the names of men whom the present genera/
tion considers eminent in various capacities: the
method of so registering them beingthe placing
of a monument to their honour in the church and
sometimesburyingtheircorpsesbeneaththepave/
ment. That this strange notion, which seems to
have first taken root about the end of the seven/
teenth century, and was in full vigour all through
the eighteenth and the earlier part of this century,
is still alive in most men's minds, is clear from this
fact, that now, when even the Dean and Chapter
of Westminster have declared that burials in the
Abbey must cease, & when it is clear to the most
casual observer that the Church is crowded to ab/
surdity with specimens of the gravestone/cutter's
35