1904.] on Westminster Ahheu in the Seventeenth Centunj. 527 



cakes,' but at St. Margaret's. When the Parliament next met, seven 

 years later, Williams was the Dean, and a note is preserved to the 

 eflfect that ' the Speaker of the Commons acquainted the House that 

 the Dean and Chapter of Westminster refuse to permit them to 

 receive the Communion there, because they were not first asked, and 

 because the preacher was not one of themselves ; but that if they would 

 appoint a canon preacher, they might receive the Communion with 

 ordinary bread ; and that the House rejected the ofter, and chose the 

 Temple Church.' In the end, however, ' the House received the 

 Communion at St. Margaret's, and Dr. Usher preached the sermon.' 

 The Abbey was willing to yield on a point of ritual, but not on a 

 point of privilege ; and so began the connection of the House of 

 Commons with St. Margaret's Church, where the Dean was ready to 

 allow them a freer hand. 



The pews in the choir, which was completely screened ofi" from 

 the transepts, were the subject of much controversy at a later time. 

 We may therefore note with interest an entry in Dean Neile's 

 accounts : ' Item, sett up in the Church about the preaching place for 

 the better sort to sit in in service and sermon time, ten severall large 

 Pewes of stronge wainscott, which with some alterations done about 

 the Prebends Stalls cost ' over 36Z. Simultaneously we read a 

 Chapter Order (1606) : ' That the prebends stalls in the Queere shalbe 

 made newe, to have all the prebends sitt together, halfe on one side 

 and halfe on the other side, every one sittinge accordinge to his 

 dignity and degree, the Sub-Deane still keepinge his ancient place.' 



I have already mentioned Mrs. Neile's 'little pew behind the 

 pulpit.' The pulpit was then (and indeed till 1779) on the south 

 side. Near it was a great pew, with King Kichard Il.'s portrait 

 hanging up on the screen behind it. Twenty years later this pew 

 was a point of fierce dispute. The Prebendaries had come to prefer 

 it to their stalls ; but Dean Williams claimed it as his preserve, and 

 would only allow the nobility to sit with him there. 



In 16ol there was added to the Chapter a clever little man 

 named Peter Heylyn, who was Laud's chaplain. Besides Laud's 

 quarrel, he had a quarrel of his own with the Dean, who ten 

 years before had been ordered to call in a book of his, and 

 only a week before had refused him institution to a living, on the 

 ground that it was not in the King's gift but in his own. Peter 

 made a cave in the Chapter, and with three other juniors drew up a 

 charge of thirty-six articles against the Dean, whose enemies bad 

 already made desperate attempts to unseat him. They preferred a 

 petition to the not unwilling King. But the Dean of Westminster is 

 notoriously difficult to get at, and a Eoyal Commission had to be ap- 

 pointed consisting of the two Archbishops, three lay Lords, and two 

 Secretaries of State. The articles are particularly interesting now, 

 as the triviality of their details aff"ord us many glimpses into the 

 domestic life of the place. Lest they should scandalise the public 

 (perhaps rather lest their absurdity should be too obvious) Peter was 



