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In 1782, the assemblage of the children, clothed and educated in the parochial schools, took place for the first time in St. Paul's, where they have since annually been collected, and the effect of such a scene as that presented by the interior of St. Paul's on these occasions, could not be matched throughout the world. The picturesque aspect of between 5,000 and 6,000 children, dispersed on raised platforms round the gigantic nave of the cathedral, the tiers of benches gradually elevated to more than half way up the height of the pillars upon which the dome reposes-decked out in party colours, with banners to represent the various schools from which they are sent as missioners-the boys separated from the girls, and the whole mass arranged with an eye to symmetry and pleasing contrast, is easier to insist upon than describe; and when to this is added a dense and animated crowd of nearly 10,000 visitors, who fill the interior to the extremities, while in the back-ground, the great organ, with its pendant choir of 70 or 80 singers, arrayed in white surplices, serves to complete the picture, the magnificence of the coup d'œil may be well imagined.

The following beautiful lines were written on that occasion, by that eccentric, but powerful artist, Blake.

Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,

The children walking two and two, in red, and blue, and green:
Grey-headed beadles walk'd before with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames' water flow.
Oh, what a multitude they seem'd, these flowers of London town,
Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own;
The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.
Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among;
Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor :-
Then cherish pity lest you drive an angel from your door.

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The doors are opened a quarter of an hour before the beginning of each service, without charge. At all other hours, visitors may gain admittance by the door of the northern portico; and on paying the stated fees, they are at liberty to view any or all of the objects of interest within the sacred edifice. From twelve to one is a very favourlable time for visiting this building, for not only is the light stronger, and the atmosphere less chilly and damp, but at that time a person attends daily to wind up the clock, who can afford some curious explanations/respecting it. solit dignend yyat bas ahit no vai b) ont pas vesaid. To view the Monuments and Body of the Church

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From hence we may that antique pile behold,
Where royal heads receive the sacred gold;
It gives them crowns, and does their ashes keep
There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep;
Making the circle of their reign complete,

There suns of empire, where they rise they set!-Waller.

Westminster Abbey may not inaptly be called the pantheon of the glory of Britain, for it is its monuments and remains which render the Abbey so precious to Englishmen and the whole civilised world. Here lie nearly all our kings, queens, and princes, from Edward the Confessor to George II. At the mention of its very name what a crowd of thoughts rush upon the mind; here kings and sculptors, princes and poets, philosophers and warriors, aged men and budding youth, the vulgar great and the author of imperishable strains, have silently mouldered into dust; and enduring marble embalms, their memory. Here the rival statesmen are at peace, and the tongue of the orator is mute: here, side by side, rest the crowned head and the chancellor ; the archbishop and the actor the philanthropist and the naval hero; the divine and the physician; the queen and the actress. Here the Roman Catholic Magnate has celebrated mass with more than Eastern splendour and here the Puritan hath poured forth his fervent but lowly exhortation. Here the dread sentence of excommunication has been launched forth in all its terrors; and here the first English Bible issued from the press T Here the magnificence and pomp of the regal coronation, have followed the solemn and beautiful burial service for the dead; and here the pealing organ and the swelling choir, rever berating through the lofty grey growni aisles, attunes the mind to solemn thoughts, and sobriety of demeanour.

This truly noble specimen of Gothic architecture was originally founded in the seventh century, by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, in the year 610; but being afterwards destroyed by the Danes, it was rebuilt by King Edgar in 958. Edward the Confessor again rebuilt the abbey and cathedral on a more extended scale, in 1066, when Pope Nicholas II. constituted it the place of inauguration of the kings of England, and gave it the form of a cross, which thenceforward became the usual form for cathedral building in England. Henry III. greatly enlarged the abbey in 1245, and commenced building the present church, which was continued by Edward I., as far as the extremity of the choir; the nave and east part were erected in succeeding reigns, and the western towers were completed by Sir Christopher Wren, but the most remarkable addition made to it was the chapel of Henry VII., which, though in itself an architectural gem unequalled in England, does not harmonize with the original design. In the general plunder of monasteries and church property, which distinguished the reign of Henry VIII., Westminster Abbey suffered severely; but it was treated still worse by the Puritans, in the great civil war, it being used as barracks for the soldiers of Parliament, who wantonly destroyed and mutilated many of the tombs and monuments that adorned the various chapels; the altars in these chapels to the saints were thrown down, the images broken, and the rich stained windows shattered into fragments. The restoration of this great national edifice was entrusted to Sir Christopher Wren, who performed his task with such ability, that the building was greatly improved, both in solidity of structure and majesty of effect, he having added the two towers at the west end. "These towers," says the poet Gray, are after designs by Sir Christopher Wren, who also made drawings for a spire of twelve sides, which is to be built hereafter. Neither this master, nor the great Inigo Jones, are at all to be admired in their imitations of the Gothic style. This front of the Abbey has no detached columns, or other pierced works of carving, to which the true Gothic owes its lightness: and there is, besides, a mixture of modern ornaments entirely inconsistent with this mode of building; such as the broken scroll pediments, supported by consoles, with masques and festoons, over the ward apertures, designed for the cornices over the great door, &c. In all the flank views of the edifice the two towers seem to unite, and appear as one square, low, and heavy steeple." During the progress of this re-edification, several curious and ancient monuments were brought to light, which may still be seen: amongst others, the Mosaic pavement, executed under the directions of Richard de Ware, Abbot of Westminster, in 1360, now in front of the altar in the choir. The best external view of the abbey is obtained from the open space in front of the western entrance, where the two great towers have a most sublime and imposing effect: passing round thence by the north side, the buttresses, of which the repairs have been completed, will enable the visitor to form some notion of the richness belonging to the details of early Gothic architecture. The front of the north transept has a very noble appearance, to which the elegant rose window, rebuilt in 1722, greatly contributes. "For nearly three hundred years," says Brayley, "this must have been the principal entrance into

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the church; all the stately processions, associated with the rites of Catholic worship, all the pompous trains assembled to grace the coronations and the burials of our sovereigns, must have been ushered

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