WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
(Inx,ustRatED BY LANTERN Views.) 
By Rev. T. R, PICKERING. 20th October, 1902. 
With the exception of the Tower of London, there is no 
building in England—or in the world—which possesses such 
rich, long, and varied interest as Westminster Abbey. From the 
time of its consecration, by Edward the Confessor, to the recent 
coronation of His Majesty King Edward VIL, all the Kings and 
Queens who have ruled over this realm have been crowned here, 
and in its various chapels and vaults many of them lie in their 
last repose. Not all. Their dust is seattered. Some few died 
and were buried abroad, others lie in various abbeys and churches 
in England ; but almost half the entire number, including some 
of the most famous and powerful, sleep within the walls of this 
venerable edifice. Tradition states that Sebert, King of the East 
Saxons, was buried within the church which he had erected on 
this spot, A.D. 616, and that shortly afterwards his Queen, 
Ethelgoda, was laid by his side. Sulcardis, one of the earliest 
historians of the Abbey, who, in 1080, dedicated his book to 
Vitalis, Abbot of Westminster, mentioned their being buried in 
leaden coffins. These coffins were taken up by Edward the 
Confessor, and re-buried in the Abbey which he built on the site 
of Sebert’s ruined church. When the present Abbey was 
commenced by Henry III., the leaden coffins were again taken 
up, enclosed in touchstone, and re-deposited; and the tomb of 
Sebert, the oldest in the Abbey, is to be seen just inside the 
South Ambulatory. Altogether, besides a great number of 
princes and princesses of the blood royal, some thirty of our 
Kings and Queens have here their burial place, of whom the 
earliest were King Sebert and his Queen, Ethelgoda, and the 
latest King George II. and his Queen, Caroline. 
In far-back times the Thames, above London Bridge, flowed 
over its low banks, and flooded a considerable extent of the flat 
surrounding district, converting it into lake or swamp. Amongst 
the various little islands in the shallow part of the river, was one 
