SECRETxiRY'S REPORT. 216 



historical associations, but it is surprising to find that the inter- 

 est attaching to particular parts, in themselves so interesting, 

 when contemplated from a distance, gives way to the impres- 

 sion of wonder at the magnitude of the whole, when you seem 

 to lose all individuality and to be swallowed, up in the limitless 

 crowd in which you mingle. It is as good as a play or an 

 opera to stand and watch the ever varying multitudes of the 

 Strand, the Haymarket, or Fleet Street. It is a constant 

 stream, rush, torrent of human life, and you are caught up 

 and borne along by it. 



I speut a day in Westminster Abbey, and attended the 

 gorgeous service there, trying to imbibe the spirit of the place 

 and appreciate the fact in all its significance, that more than 

 six hundred years have passed away since Hciiry the Third 

 raised its gray walls, its clusteped shafts and pointed arches, 

 which still rise to heaven in graceful lightness, strength and 

 beauty ; but the thought of the outward world, the grandeur 

 and magnificence of size, would have its influence even there. 



The sculptured monuments and tombs without number fill 

 the mind with awe, as any churchyard would, but after visiting 

 those of Rome and Florence, and other Italian cities, they sink 

 into insignificance in comparison, so far as their artistic merit 

 is concerned, while but very few contain the names of any body 

 that we know or care any thing about. In the poets' corner, to 

 be sure, one would like to linger long, but even there the 

 number of those whose names are familiar to us is small, and 

 the feeling that only a very few of those whose names are 

 inscribed on the marble were actually buried there, inclines 

 one to pass on to the sln*ine of Edward the Confessor, the 

 chapel of Henry the Seventh, or the Jerusalem Chamber. 



A long line of kings and queens lies buried within these 

 walls, and the stranger pauses to recall what he has read of 

 them, what they did for the good or the harm of mankind. 

 The shrine of Edward the Confessor is the most ancient and 

 interesting of the monuments of the past. Here is also the 

 old Scone stone, on which the ancient kings of Scotland were 

 crowned, now fixed into a coronation chair, made by order of 

 Edward the First, and there the headless statue of Edward the 

 Fifth, from which the solid silver head was stolen long ago. 



