LON 
tsn warranted belief tht oppofite clafs of readers, whole 
fondnefs for romantic alfertions is ready to fwallow the 
marvellous without difficulty or difcrimination. We (hall 
content ourfelves with prefenting to our readers whatever 
wecan gatherofa warrantable nature; and therefore merely 
mention the following (lory of the dedication of the church 
as a matter of curiofity. 
It cannot be denied, as far as hiltorical authority can 
retain its weight, that Sebert king of the Eaft Saxons, (fee 
p. 56 of this volume,) who died in 616, being, by Au- 
gultine’s preaching and his uncle Erhelbert’s example, 
converted to Chrillianity, threwdown thetempleof Apollo, 
welt of London, and there moll devoutly erected a church, 
which he dedicated to St. Peter; and appointed Mellitus, 
then bilhop of London, to confecrate itaccordingly. Ra- 
nulphus, indeed, does not particularly mention Sebert, 
but has thefe remarkable words; “That fome one , at the 
mitigation of Ethelbert, built a church to the honour of 
St. Peter, in the well part of the city of London, in a 
place called Thorney, which lignifies an illand of thorns* 
but is now called Wellminlter.” 
We are told that fir Chriltopher Wren rejects as fabu¬ 
lous the notion of a temple to Apollo in Thorney-ifland ; 
and the rather, becaufe it isfaid to have been deftioyed by 
an earthquake in the reign of Antonius Pius, in order to 
make way for a Chriflian church to be erected by king 
Lucius upon its ruins. Sir Chriltopher declares, that 
when he was employed to furvey Weftininlter-abbey, 
though he examined both the walls and ornaments about 
it with the nicell care, yet he could not difcover the lead 
fragment of cornice or capital, to indicate the work of a 
Roman builder, which he thinks he mull undoubtedly 
have done had the fadl been true, as earthquakes break 
few (tones, though they overturn edifices.—Now, though 
we have a refpect for the authority of fir Chriltopher Wren, 
we do not fee how his arguments, which are merely nega¬ 
tive, can refute llatements which are pofitive as to the wor- 
Ihip of Apollo having been held in great repute in Thor¬ 
ney. The not finding of ruins at the place, is no proof that 
no temple exilted there. Belides, we are not told that 
this temple was an immenfe edifice, like thofe in Greece 
and Italy : a iimple facellum (and we could expert no¬ 
thing more in an illand where, before the arrival of the 
Romans, little, if any thing, was known of the ancient 
polytheifm) would have been enough toauthorife the wri¬ 
ter quoted page 397, to fay that this part of Great Britain 
facrificed to Apollo; and the authors who followed him 
to admit the exillence of a temple where the abbey now 
Hands, as well as of a temple to Diana on the fite of 
St. Paul’s.—Had fir Chriftopher Wren been allowed to 
examine, done by Hone, the deep foundations of either or 
both of thefe edifices, he might have found fome fragments 
of rude architecture, denoting that a building had pre¬ 
ceded them; and yet he might have been llill unable to 
decide whether it had been a temple, a villa, or a corps 
de garde. 
As to the dedication of the abbey, it is reported that the 
king had ordered Mellitus to perform the ceremony ; but 
St. Peter, as the legend fays, was beforehand with him ; 
for over-night he called upon Edricus, a fifherman, and 
defired to be ferried over to Thorney, which happened to 
be then flooded round by heavy rains. The filherman 
obeyed; and the apoltle then confecrated the church, 
amidfl a grand chorus of heavenly mufic, and a glorious 
appearance of burning lights; of which Edricus was both 
an ear and an eye witnefs. The faint then difcovered him- 
felf to the filherman ; and bade him tell Mellitus what he 
had heard and feen ; giving him at the fame time a fpecimen 
of his divine million, by a miraculous draught of falmort, 
of which kind of fill), when in feafon, the apoflle allured 
him, none of his occupation fliould ever want, provided 
they honeilly made an offering of the tenth filh to the ufe 
of the newly-confecrated church. This cultom appears 
to have been continued until the end of the fourteenth 
century.—That this romantic talc was generally credited 
D O N. 
for many ages after, Is evident from two royal charters. 
Thefirfl is acharterofkingEdgar, whichfays,“This church 
was dedicated by no lefs than St. Peter, the prince of 
apollles, to his own honour.” The other is a charter of 
Edward the Confelfor, which is Hill more explicit, affirm¬ 
ing it to be “dedicated by St. Peter himfelf, with the at¬ 
tendance of angels, by the impreffion of the holy crols, 
and the anointment of the holy chrifm.” 
This church and its monaHery were repaired and enlarged 
by Offa king of Mercia; but, being deltroyed by the pa¬ 
gan Danes, they were rebuilt by Edgar, who endowed 
them, and, in the year 969, granted them many great pri¬ 
vileges. But, having again fuffered by the ravages of the 
Danes, Edward the Confelfor pulled down the old church, 
and erected a moH magnificent one, for that age, in it* 
place, in the form of a crofs, which was begun in the year 
1049, and became a pattern for that kind of building.. 
The work being finilbed in the year 1066, he caufed it 
to be conlecrated with the greatelt pomp and folemnity; 
and by feveral charters not only confirmed all its ancient 
rights and privileges, but endowed it with many rich ma¬ 
nors and additional immunities; and the church, by a 
bull of pope Nicholas I. was confiituted the place for the 
inauguration of the kings of England. And, as an ab¬ 
bey in thofe days would have been nothing without relics, 
here were to be found the veil and fome drops of the milk 
of the Virgin ; the blade-bone of St. Benedict; the finger 
of St. Alphage; the head of St. Maxilla; and half the 
jaw-bone of St. Analtafia. 
William the Conqueror, to (how his regard to the me¬ 
mory of his late friend king Edward, no (boner arrived in 
London, than he repaired to this church, and offered a 
fumptuous pall, as a covering for Edward’s tomb. lie 
alfo gave fifty marks of filver, together with a very rich 
altar-cloth, and two calkets of gold ; and the Chrifimas 
following was I'olemnly crowned there, which was thertrll 
coronation performed in that place. 
The next prince that undertook to enlarge this great work 
was Henry III. who built a chapel to the Bleffed Virgin, 
then called the New Work at Wellminlter, the firlt Hone 
whereof he laid himfelf on the Saturday before his corona¬ 
tion intheyear 1220. But,about twenty years after, finding 
the walls and Heeple of the old ltructure much decayed, 
he pulled them all down, with a defign to enlarge and re¬ 
build them in a more regular manner. He commenced 
this great work in 1245, ' n the Hyle of architecture which 
began to prevail in his days, but did not carry it fur* 
ther than four arches well of the middle tower; and the 
vaulting of this part was not completed until 1296. He 
did not live to accomplifl) his defign. It was continued 
by his fuccelfor, and carried on flowly by fucceeding 
princes; and from the portcullifes on the roof of the lalt 
arches it appears, that either Henry VII. or VIII. had 
fome concern in it, that being the device of thefe monarchs. 
The building was never finilhed; the great tower and the 
two weflern towers remaining incomplete at the reforma¬ 
tion, after which the two prefent towers were erefted. 
About the year 1502, Henry VII. began that magnifi¬ 
cent HruCture, which is now generally called by his name. 
For this purpofe, he pulled down the chapel of Henry III. 
already mentioned, and an adjoining houfe called the 
White-Rofe Tavern. This chapel, like the former, he 
dedicated to the Bleffed Virgin ; and, defigning it for a 
burial-place for himfelf and his pollerity, he carefully or¬ 
dered in his will, that none but thole of royal blood fiiould 
be permitted to lie therein : and, for the health of hi* 
foul, he procured a bull from the pope, for uniting to 
this abbey the collegiate church of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, 
and the manor of Tykill in Yorklhire, for the mainte¬ 
nance of a chauntry of three monks and two lay brethren, 
This was the origin of the jurifdiblion of the dean and 
chapter of Wefiminfier in St. Martin’s-le-grand. 
At the head of leventeen monks, William Benfon, the 
abbot, furrendered the abbey to Henry VIII. at the ge¬ 
neral fuppreffion of religious houfes, in- the year 15393 
wheA 
