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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1953-05-28, Page 3stnu.nster Abbey— Focus Of A . ey— Foc , ll Eyes Probably eo other single edifice M the world today so stirs the emotions of western men as does Wesniinster Abb — or simply The Abbey as it is affectionately called. For in this ancient building will presently take place the corona- tion of Queen Elizabeth II. In June there will journey to Lon- don a multitude of visitors -.- citizens citizens of England and the Corn- monwealth over whom the new Queen will reign, people from the Continent of Europe and beyond, others from the Americas, lovers of England and of the English from across distant lands and seas. Closer to People The focus of all their attention will be The Abbey, still standing stalwart as it has stood now for almost 1,000 years, just across the square from the Houses of Parlia- ment, thus evidencing that indi- visible linkbetween church and state which is so firmly en- trenched in the English tradition. One might consider St. Paul's Cathedral ,more impressive, thrusting its great dome high against the' pale blue sky, stretching' its vast length along the top 'of Ludgate Hill and thus overlooleing much of the city, the Thames, and the surrounding country. As for The Abbey, one might argue that it is humbler, less dramatic, lying as it does close to the soil, nearer to the river, as though it loved the very terrain of England. And this znay be true; yet, built at first in the marshes about Thorney Island, gray and somber if one likes to fancy it so, Westminster Abbey comes closer to the people. It is at the throbbing heart of the Commonwealth with all its diversified and far -scattered citi- zens. No building more nearly typifies the unity and allegiance of the English people. Also, to an amazing degree, it touches the sympathies and calls forth the devotion of men outside the Com- monwealth. What, indeed, is the first build- ing to claim the notice of the average newcomer to London? Why, Westminster Abbey, of course. Riding the top-heavy red busses as they charge down Whitehall from Trafalgar Square, hurrying through the dim pas- sages of the Underground, trudg- ing on foot past the entrance to Downing Street and skirting the Cenotaph, coma visitors to pay their solemn respects to The Ab- bey and, within its eloquent walls, to say their ardent prayers for the peace of the world. Place To Meditate Go in under the portico of the great door in the north trasept. The interior seems at first im- penetrable, so grope for a nearby pew and sit down until eyes be- come accustomed to the shadows. Perhaps it is the hour of after- noon vespers with the organ play- ing softly and those high, sweet voices of the choir boys pene- trating the reaches of the vast building, echoing under the vaulted roof, heard far down the nave to the west door and even in the exquisite chapel of henry VII at the eastern end. Sit and listen and meditate, while gazing raptly at the jewel- like glass and delicate tracery of the rose window in the opposite trasept. Therein lies pleasure enough for some time. People move about silently, black shad- ows which are scarcely notice- able, so absorbed one is in the significance of his surroundings. One quiets in the atmosphere of the Abbey, There steals over the average man au awareness of its long consecration Of the worship of God, down the ages from the time when King Ed- ward the Confessor demolished a ruder church on this site which had been built by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, and laid the foundations of his own church. Edward did not long outlive the consecration of this church of his, which took place on the fifth day of January in the year 1066. Harold's coronation followed and then that of William the Con- queror, the Norman, as is de- picted in one small section of the Bayeux Tapestry. For nine hundred years Westminster Ab- bey has been the place of crown- ing for all English kings and queens with the exception of two only. Now it will soon see one more coronation—that of the young Elizabeth II, who has al- ready consecrated her life to the service of her people, to the wel- fare and safety of England and the Commonwealth. At length, leaving one's seat near the north door, one moves reverently about the building and views all its wealth of ar- chitectural beauty and historical allusion, There is much to see. A week of steady application would scarcely include all the monuments in, for example, the Poets' Corner and along the nave and in the various small connect- ing chapels. The superb fan - vaulting of Henry VII's Chapel, the grey Coronation Chair un- der which is encased the Stone of Scone, the worn flagstones and little steps used for so long by the monks of the adjoining monastery, the Tomb of the Un- known Soldier, the cloisters and little ancient squares, the en- trances to the Jerusalem Cham- ber and the Chapel of the Pyx —these and incalculably more await the visitors' inspection. The Abbey is a veritable me- morial to inunense numbers of England's famous sons; and, if not all the monuments are pleas- ing to the eye and if they are inexcusably crowded in nave and aisles and transepts, certain individual tombs and memorials are most beautiful and touching in their implications, such as those of Queen Elizabeth and of Mary Queen of Scots, cousins who never met in life. In any case, it is not the details which so much matter; they fade in the pattern of the whole and its in- ner meaning. One accepts Westminster Ab- bey as the symbol of union among the English -s peaking peoples, the witness to their free- dom, the hope for the future of all right-minded men. Its mag- nificent accomplishment is that, in some inexplicable way, it con- trives to gather up the past with all its achievement, and the fut- ure bright with hope for the hu- man race—gathering these to- gether into one mighty truth, re- assuring and significant beyond mere words to convey. Nowhere is there a building comparable to Westminster Abbey. The Frenchman, Comte de Montal- embert well described it when he wrote: "No monument has ever been more identified with the history of a people; every one of its stones represents a page in the annals of the country." Here is the perfect setting, then, for the consecration of a young and beautiful Queen. "God Save Tho Queen"—Seen above, in this scene from the film "Coronation Ceremony,` is a preview of the crowning of Queen Elizabeth Il. The Archbishop of Canterbury has just returned from the altar of London's Westminster Abbey, and is holding the Crown of St, Edward above the Queen's head. As he places it on her head the assemblage will shout "God Save the Queen," "Elizobeth U, by the Grace of God, Queen of this realm and all her other realms , and territories, Head of the Commonwealth., Defender of the Faith." Man Who Walked Off With Royal Crown It Vanished Under Eyes Of Guards When top State officials plan- ned the final details of the Abbey ceremony, they took the strictest precautions to ensure that the Imperial State Crown is not mis- laid at the next Coronation, Why? Because that is just what hap- pened at the last. At the crowning of King George VI, the wondrous Crown of nearly 3,000 gems—it contains some believed worn by St. Ed- ward the Confessor, Henry V, Elizabeth 1 and Charles II, and is now valued at £2110,000—was missing just before the ceremony began. Those few high church digni- taries who knew of the "loss" lived the most terrible fifteen minutes of their lives. Not a word of the dramatic happening leaked outside the ancient Abbey walls until recently. How could it happen? How could the centrepiece of the world's most closely -guarded col- lection of jewels be mislaid? How could the Crown vanish before the eyes of its guards? Such a thing was considered impossible, But the impossible did happen and this is the sequence of events. On the afternoon of May 12th, 1937—the day before the Coro- nation—the regalia was brought from the Tower of London,' and, as was customary, placed in the charge of the Dean of Westmin- ster, then The Very Rev. William Foxley Norris, who gave his re- ceipt for it. Overnight, the Crown Jewels lay in the Jerusalem Chamber. There were armed guards in the chamber all night, and in the precincts of Westminster Ab- bey were concentrations of police, ready at a moment's call. There should have been several pairs of eyes always fixed upon those priceless possessions of .the British State. Carried Empty Cushion Before the ceremony could be- gin, the several items of regalia had to be placed in position in various parts of the Abbey, so as to be ready when the compli- cated ritual called for their use. This movement of the regalia within the Abbey takes place ac- cording to ancient custom. The Dean and the canons of West- minster—each with one piece on a crimson velvet cushion—carry the jewelled objects from the Jerusalem Chamber in procession through the south and east clois- ters and into the sanctuary. Some of the jewels are laid on the high altar, others are placed on the altar in St. Edward's Chapel just behind the high altar. The rest of the regalia is next carried, still in procession, through the choir and nave to the annexe by the west door to await the Sovereign, Here this part of the regalia is handed to the great officers 01 State for them to carry in the great pro- cession of the Sovereign from the west door to the "theatre" where most of the ritual takes igloo. During the procession of the regalia the Litany is sung and the congregation are in their places. The Dean of Westminster is privileged to carry the Imperial State Crown. On the morning of May 13th, 1937, he was in his place in the line of prebendaries ready to be handed the Crown which he was to lay on the altar in St. Edward's Chapel. Ahead at him the processiol.n was starting. Several canons were moving off, each carrying his pre- scribed piece of regalia, When the Dean came to take the Im- perial Siete Crown it was miss- ing! Those in charge of the regalia were dutnhfoundcd, Nobody know what had happened to the Crown. Earlier that momentous morning it had shared pride of place with St. Edward's Crown on the long refectory table on which the Crown Jewels had been displayed. The Dean's feelings can only be imagined. He was personally responsible for the Crown—with- out it the ceremony could not proceed. Be was in a terrible quandary. To have raised hue and cry—to started a search at that moment would have brought chaos to the Abbey. Split -Second Decision Dr. Foxley Norris was a man of strong beliefs. He believed it inconceivable that the Crown had been stolen. He made his decision instantly, taking his place in the slowly moving line, carrying his cushion before him—empty, The procession wound slowly through the cloisters. Of the many who watched it enter the Abbey by the door on the south side, none sensed the drama of the moment. The "loss" was known only to a handful of people, but one or two officials did think the Dean's empty cushion very strange. And so to the high altar and thence to St. Edward's Chapel. There, on the little altar at the head of St. Edward's Shrine, was the Imperial State Crown! From a window high above the chapel a thin shaft of sunlight had set the immense Star of Africa dia- mond which is mounted in the rim, flashing like a beacon in a darkened world. The Dean's relief was enorm- ous. That diamond, scintilating in the gloom of the little chapel, must have lit his darkened world with the blaze of summer's noon. Bible Headlined At Coronation The !holy Bible, styteu the "most valuable thing that the world affords," takes highez Precedence than ever before in the coronation service June 1. The form of service has been changed to emphasize its place in British life. The fabric of religious history, the life and meaning of pagean- . try, even mucin of the imagery of 20th -century English speoeh de-. rives from the Scriptures. In the seventh century, Caed- mon was making his poetic ver- sion of the Scriptures. The Ven- erable Bede, " the father of Eng- lish learning" was at work in the eighth century. King Alfred, a direct ancestor of Queen Eliza- beth 11, translated parte of the Old and New Testaments For this reason many have felt the presentation of the Bible to the sovereign should be em- phasized in the coronation cere- mony. Rearrangement of the order of service to bring this about and association of the Church of Scotland in the act of presentation have therefore give en much satisfaction everywhere. Churches to Cooperate Though the Churches of Eng- land and Scotland had their dif- ferences, "they both equally re- gard the Holy Scriptures and ap- peal to them," Dr, Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canter- bury said in announcing the changes. Through the Archbishop and But how did the Crown get to St. Edward's Chapel? The cere- mony had to proceed with the mystery unsolved; afterwards an investigation was held, It was discovered that a minor civil servant—"sone tiresome official underling" the highest dignitary of the English Church called him —had done what was considered impossible. He knew that the Imperial State Crown had to be in St. Edward's Chapel Inc the latter part of the ceremony. He did not know the procedure for getting it there. Guards Did Not See So this Irian, seeing the most valuable crown that exists—one gem from which would have kept him in luxury for the rest of his life—resting on the table in the Jerusalem Chamber, when he thought it should be in St, Ed- ward's Chapel, acted in a very un -civil service -like manner, He picked up the Crown, walk- ed out of the Chamber, went straight to St. Edward's Chapel. He spoke to nobody. The guards did not see him. The Abbey clergy had no inkling of his action. • The shattering thought is that he might have walked out of the Abbey, It seems inconceivable that the Imperial State Crown could disappear at a coronation —but it did. And the authority for this incredible story is none other than Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, who crowned King George VI. the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the two churches will join together in presenting the Queen with the Bible. The presentation of the Holy Scriptures introduced first to the Coronation service in 1089 for the Coronation of William and Mary, has since then occurred after the crowning. Now it will take place near the beginning of the service im- mediately after the recognition and the oath and before t'l,e start of the communion service. "The Bible is thus given its rightful significance in the order of presentation," Dr. Fisher said. "The foundations are truly laid and the solemn rites can proceed. First the witness to the Word, and then the beginning of the Sacrament of the Holy Com- munion." Presentation Follows The presentation of the Holy Bible now comes after what might be called the introductory part of the service. When the Queen seated after taking the oath, the Archbishop approaches the chair, and the Moderator of the General As- sembly of the Church of Scot- land, Dr. G. J. Jeffrey, receives the Bible from the Dean of West- minsted and presents it to the Queen. The Archbishop mean- while repeats these words: "Our Gracious Queen: To keep your Majesty ever mindful of the Law and the Gospel of God as the rule for the whole life and government of Christian Prin- ces, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords." The Moderator continues: "Here is wisdom, This is the royal law, There are the lively oracles of God," Queen Elizabeth II returns the Bible to the Moderator who brings it to the Dean of West- minster to be placed upon the altar. When Royalty Trod A Flowerful Path In 'Coronations of Kings and Queens in earlier centuries the King's herb woman and her maids led the grand procession from Westminster Hall across Parliament Square to Westmin- ster Abbey along a raised plat- form built for the purpose. As they went they carpeted the way with fragrant flowers taken from their baskets. George IV with his trainbearers — nine resplendent young men in ruffles and knee breeches — was the last monarch to walk to his Coronation over such a flower - strewn platform. The last herb woman to per- form the duty seems to have been Miss Fellowes, Escorted by rMr. Fellowes (presumably het father) she and her maids, ele- gantly dressed in white. flung flowers in the path of Gorge IV. Over her white dress Miss Fel- lowes wore a scarlet mantle ap- propriately trimmed with flow- ers. Miss 1'. G. Bolliman puts fin- ishing touches on a small scale reproduction. of Westminster Abbey which is part of a large model of the coronation route. The sentry box in front of Buckingham Palace gels a new coat of paint for the occasion. The stern guardsman did not turn to watch. The hose of England will bloom along the coronation parade route, This huge display flow- er is being hung high enough for all to see on Regent St "Standing room only." That le lite way many will view the Coronation,. London lasses seen above sort applications, some front as far away as Adstratie Buts in the air 'w'ill be seen above London lampposts. Seen Imre is a white Household • Cavalry helmet with a trail• ing erintscnt and white plums Fitting toasts to tier-Maiesty will be drunk from snoop* goblets engraved with the ray. al elpher, Designer W, son dates a goblet.