sea. Offerings were made and many eminent miracles reported, "the blind were made to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to walk."

All these statements having come to the notice of the Pope, Julius II, he issued a Commission in 1504 to inquire into the matter with reference to the canonization of the late King and the erection of a suitable shrine to receive his body. Henry VII's devotion to the king's memory revived at this period. Gratitude to this uncle and half-brother of his young father, whose friendly care and acknowledgment had wrought important and enduring changes in the prospects of the descendants of the Welsh soldier and the French queen, moved him deeply. He began to arrange for a rebuilding of the Lady chapel at the east end of St. George's, Windsor, intending to make that the place of his own sepulture.

But at this stage of the proceedings both Westminster Abbey and Chertsey Abbey laid claim to the saint's body, the former on the righteous ground that Henry VI had carefully selected the place of his own burial in the chapel of Edward the Confessor: and Chertsey, because Richard III had removed the body, without the consent of the monastery, from its original

resting-place. The decision was in favour of Westminster and to this Abbey Henry VII now transferred his interests and plans. Here he would found a new Lady chapel, enrich it with a glorious shrine for the saint, and here raise a noble chantry tomb for himself and his queen, and here, according to his Will, he proposed "right shortly to translate . . . the body and reliques of his uncle of blissful memory, King Henry VI.”"

The Pope granted a license for removing the body, but there is no record to show that the canonization was ever effected. The convent of Westminster contributed £5000, in present value, towards the removal, and though certain records seem to show that this was accomplished, the balance of proof, especially as gathered from the wills of Henry VII and Henry VIII, is against it: and the tradition which says that the body of Henry VI still remains in the south aisle of St. George's, Windsor, is undoubtedly correct.

These three objects of the King in founding the chapel were soon defeated: for with the Dissolution of the monastery under Henry VII's son, thirty years after the father's death, all services in honour of the Virgin Mary and the ten patron saints were done away with: the body of

the grandmother was never honoured, according to the King's second purpose in the new chapel, since he died before the building was finished: and the canonization and translation of Henry VI were also set aside.

The real meaning of the chapel, as it has stood for four centuries, is as a monument to the founder, a tomb for himself and his queen and for his successors to the throne. He intended that none but those of royal blood should be here buried, but seventy others have shared that honour with their sovereigns. Here, in its office as a Royal Mausoleum, are buried seven kings, nine queens, forty royal children and numerous other members of

English royal families. Here, first of all to seek its shelter, lies the honoured, and beloved mother of the founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort: here, seven kings, in order, Edward V, Henry VII, Edward VI, James I, Charles II, George II, and William of Orange: and nine queens, in their order, Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII: Mary: Elizabeth: Mary Queen of Scots: Mary, wife of William of Orange: Anne: Anne of Denmark, queen of James I: Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James I: and Caroline, queen of George II. Anne Hyde, the first wife

of James II, was also buried here, but she died before the king came to his throne and was never called queen, though two of her daughters, Mary and Anne, had that honour.

The forty royal children include the two princes murdered in the Tower, one of whom, Edward V, has been named among the kings: four children of Charles I: ten of James II: and eighteen of Queen Anne.

For all these kings and queens there are but three monuments, viz., one for the founder and his queen: one for Mary Queen of Scots and one for Mary and Elizabeth. The princes in the Tower have a small monument: and each of the two infant daughters of James I has a beautiful memorial in the north aisle. Not even an inscription marked the resting-place of the remaining members of royal families until the time of Dean Stanley, who caused the name and date of death of many of these to be inscribed on the paving stones above their respective graves.

No royal burials have taken place here since the time of George II. Modern royalty has sought less public places of interment. Queen Victoria and Edward VII are buried at Windsor.*

*It is a somewhat remarkable fact that no English sovereign has ever been buried in St. Paul's, the cathedral church of this capital city of England.

After the term Lady chapel ceased to be used, and prayers to the Virgin were no longer offered here, the chapel was for a time called St. Saviour's, and it was used not wholly as sacred or for worship but for special occasions and events as the consecration of bishops and the initial meetings of the Houses of Convocation of Canterbury. On the revival of the Order of the Bath, this was made the chapel of the Order, and the Dean of Westminster, ex officio, the Dean of the Order. The banners of the Knights of the Bath are still hanging over the stalls: the names of knights and esquires are still on their copper plates and the Dean wears the broad red ribbon and insignia of the Order though the ceremony of installation here was long discontinued.

Marriages and christenings of persons actually resident within the Abbey, as in the families of the Dean and canons: and confirmations of Westminster School boys may take place here. Burials are not "of right" in any part of the Abbey, the privilege being granted by the Dean "to persons of great and world-wide celebrity and distinction."*

The History of the Fabric. "In 1503,

*For information on this and some other points, I am indebted to the Chapter Clerk.