The Abbey and the Coronation.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 May 1911, Page 4

The Abbey and the Coronation.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CEREMONY. (J3v A. N. Anniger, in the Daily Mail.) Although Westminster Abboy is •now in the hands of the Office of Works, and the- sound of the carpenter's hammer and saw will 'or some months to come- take the place of music from organ and; ohoir, it is satisfactory to know that tho Dean and Chapter still retaim. the power ajid responsibility, of watching over the whole of the operations as personal guardians of the building find .its contents. This responsibility only ceases for a short time when, after nil the preparations arc finished, the keys of th'e Abbey are, according to ancient custom, handed over to ancient custom, handed over to the Earl Marshal, a few hours before Coronation Day. Tho public anxiety for the Abbey's safety is, however, quite natural when wo remember how the building has at times been treated for Coronations. Kor George IV.'s Coronation, when it was made to ihold the largest congregation it has ever Contained, the interior was absolutely wrecked, and the whole of the wainscoting, seats, stalls, and the organ, choir, and altar pieces were removed to mako room for the enormous galleries that wore erected. T'ne preparations for the ceremony \v<rv. commenced' on the 20th of May, 1820, and the ebunih was not open again to the public until te<n years later. The long interval was partly due to the postponement of *be Coronation in (coinscquieiiicei of the Parliainetary enquiry on the conduct of Queen Caroline, but chiefly to the time expended in refitting the choir for its customary solemnities. The Abbey for many yea.rs bore marks of thei Coronation, in chipped statues and damaged walls, which only skilful restoration and the mellowing hand of time have concealed. THE COXQUKBTOK. The records of English Coronations form a large chapter in the history of Westminster Abbey, inasmuch as, with tho exception of Rdward V.. who .did not live to he crowned, every Knglisb King and Queen lias been crowned there since the time of William the Conqueror. Tlie Conqueror's Coronation was the first event in the Abbey of win eh there i 3 any certain record after the burial of the Confessor, and, as Dean Stanley eloquently remarks in his "Memorials of Westminster Abbey," William's selection of this spot for the most important act <>f his life sprang chiefly from regard to the Confessor's memory. To be crowned beside the grave of the last hereditary Saxon King was the direct fulfilment of the whole p!a.rt oi the Conqueror, or "Conqwstor" — the inheritance not by victory, b'lt by right of the throne of his predecessor King Edward. Henceforth the ceremony of the coronation was firmly attached to the Church of Westminster, which is described in "Liber Regalis" as "the head, crown and diadem of the Kingdom." The Abbey's connection with the grave of the Confessor was jealously preserved. The regalia bore, and still bears, its Anglo-Saxon name.*. LUSER REGALIS. A copy of the Gospels said to have belonged to Abhelstane was the bookon which the Coronation oath was taken, and the form of the oath until the time of James TT. was "to observe the laws of the Glorious Confessor." The Abbey's connection with English Coronations has been as unquestioned as it has bean continuous. The whole of the Regalia was deposited in the Treas-ury

Westminster till the reiern of Henry VIII.. and the greater part of it remained there naitil it was broken up during the Commonwealth, by Cromwell's orders. The new ftegalia made for Charles 11. was placed in the Tower, but, as an acknowledgment of the Abbey's nncient -right, it has been custonv-i.-v to band it over to the charge of the Dean previous to each Coronation. The Demi a'so has the custody of "Liber Regalis." which was prepared in 1373 under the care of Nicolas Littlnigton, Abbot of Westminster. and_ is the basis of the present Coronation ceremonial; and. just as mi early times, the Abbot was the instructor to the new King in 'he forms and ceremonies of his Coronation, so it is now the duty of tne Dean of Westminster to prepare tin monarch for the service, while (i: the Dean and Canons of Wcstmiimi devolves the duty of assisting i\,c prelates during the ceremony. Viom time immemorial also the Westminster hoys have supplied the tra htional acclamation and assent of tlio people of England to the election »f the Sovereign. A CONCENTRATED MEMORUr. The Abbey bears very few memorials .of the Coronations that have taken place there except a rcpre- '■ se-ntation of the Coronation of I Henry V. and his Queen,' Catherine of France, which is sculptural on ! each side of his Chantry. Hut j the Coronation choir and stone on ' which every monarch from Kdward 1. to Edward VTT. has been crowned form a concentrated memorial of the Coronation which is still the chief object of attraction to the visitors at the Abbey, as it was wilien Edison described Sir Roger Coverley's visit there. When Edward T. went to the AKbey of bcone in A.D. 129G, after havinotaken the Castle of Edinburgh and sent its plate and jewels to Westminster, tho "fatal stone" was enclosed in an a.nciemt chair, but what became of the latter is unknown, although there is evidence that it reached London from the fact that the present chair was ' frequently described as the "new -chair." The King intended to have a chair made of bronze, but he changed bis mind and' ordered one "to be made., of -.wood after the same pattern." One hundred shillings was the price, with 13s 4(1 for carving, painting and! gilding :two small leopards in wood, .which, according to the Wardrobe Accounts of 29 EdSvard .7., were to be delivered l to Master Walter, the painter, and placed upon either side of the chair made by him. Further on in the Accounts, Master Walter is paid "£1 19s 7d for making a stop at the •foot of the new chair in which the ■Scottish stone is placed l near the Altar before the Shrine of St. Edward." The present step and lions are modern: work, but with this exception, 'and the fact that the chair in its ordinary state, and before it is gilded and upholstered) for the Coronation, shows the scratches and disfigurements of ceaiturros, it is sound and solid as when it left Master Walter's hands.