24 WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND ITS MONUMENTS. 
Gothic architecture fell all over Europe for more than three 
centuries, we may be thankful that our many beautiful English 
minsters, and especially the one with which we are now con- 
cerned, were not all swept away, and replaced by ‘‘classic” 
buildings similar to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The late great archi- 
tect, Mr. Street, speaks of Westminster Abbey as “the most 
lovely and loveable thing in Christendom.” Alas! in this case, as 
in so many others, we are now face to face with the melancholy 
fact that architects and builders, even of the highest class, can 
construct only for time, not for eternity. Many parts of the fine 
church are to-day in such a condition that they must either be re- 
built or suffered to fall into decay and ruin. And this question of 
rebuilding is a very difficult one. However reverently the restora- 
tion may be carried out, the feeling of the spectator will assuredly 
be ‘‘ No man who has seen the old, straightway desires the new, 
for he says the old was better.” 
After the Reformation the Abbey still remained the customary 
royal burial place. With the exceptions of Charles I. and 
James II., every English monarch, from Edward VI. to 
George II. inclusive, lies under the floor of Henry VII.’s Chapel. 
Oliver Cromwell, too, was buried here; but, to the eternal disgrace 
of Charles II., his remains, with those of the other regicides, were 
disinterred after the Restoration and ejected from the Abbey. 
But to none of the post-Reformation sovereigns was any monu- 
ment erected, with the exception of one to the sister queens, 
Mary and Elizabeth. This was put up by James I., who also 
erected a somewhat similar one to the memory of his mother, 
Mary Queen of Scots. 
So far, I have spoken only of the burials and memorials of 
sovereigns. Many other persons, however, even in early times, 
were interred in the Abbey. Toa nineteenth century mind, the 
words ‘* Westminster Abbey ’ 
suggest the idea of interments and 
monuments intended to recognize the distinguished merit of their 
subjects either as warriors, patriots, statesmen, or men of letters 
or science. But this idea is a comparatively modern one. It 
was certainly no part of the design of the founders of the Abbey ; 
