26 WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND ITS MONUMENTS, 
north-east of that of Henry VII., this being the earliest instance 
of the burial of anyone not of the seed royal in that part of the 
Abbey. The sixteenth and seventeenth century monuments are 
of course quite out of keeping with the architecture of the church 
itself, and apart from this we cannot help marking a distinct loss 
of the religious feeling which seems inherent in the pre-Reforma- 
tion monuments. The old form of altar tomb with recumbent 
effigy gradually disappeared, the whole character and style of the 
monument was changed, effigies of the dead were placed in every 
conceivable attitude and mural tablets appeared, the delicate 
arcading and ornamentation of the walls being often sadly 
mutilated to make way for them. 
It was during the great Civil War that the Abbey was first 
recognized as the regular burial place for national heroes, as 
distinguished from court favourites or men of letters, and the 
same principle prevailed during the reigns of the later Stuarts ; 
and burial in the Abbey has from that time been recognized as 
conferring the highest honour on various kinds of merit. And 
not only has burial been thus looked upon. In many cases 
cenotaphs have been put up in memory of those buried elsewhere. 
Down to the early part of this century the privilege was granted 
with a freedom that we now cannot help thinking excessive. Not 
only were the monuments set up unduly numerous, but many of 
them take up an enormous space. It must also be remarked of 
the monuments of the last two centuries that only in very few 
instances can they be taken as any guide to the place of sepul- 
ture, even when that is also in the Abbey. But during the last 
forty or fifty years the authorities have been more careful in these 
matters, and the interments and monuments have been confined 
to the cases of those who have occupied a large space in public 
estimation. Moreover, a few of the more objectionable or 
obstructive of the monuments have during the last few years 
been somewhat reduced in size. Nevertheless, the condition of 
the Abbey is now such that, in the words of the late Sir Gilbert 
Scott, ‘‘ there is in fact no more room for monuments, unless the 
interior is to be entirely crowded up with them, and both the 
