Through Solomon's Porch, Westminster Abbey.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 174, 16 October 1886, Page 3 (Supplement)

Through Solomon's Porch, Westminster Abbey.

We gaze and gaze, and try to take in the wonder of stone before us. Then, through the bewildering noise of London streets, the rattle of cabs and carriages, the whistle and rumble of underground railways, the ceaseleas tramp ot hurrying feet on the pavement " Big Ben " booms out eleven times solemnly and slowly from the clock tower. We pasa the photograph and guide-book sellers, and push open the doors under the central arch way of Solomon's porch. In an. instant the glare and hurry are left behind. We find ourselves in a sweet mellow silence —in a dim, tender light — in a vast airy stillness, such as you find at noontice in the depths of a beech forest. But here the boles of the beech trees are hugh pillars of stone ; the branches are graceful pointed arches that . spring from them, and vaultings and ribs that flash with gold through the blue mist that hangs for ever about the roof a hundred feet; ■ overhead. Outside • the Abbey surge the waves of the great city. We hear a faint murmur of its restless life, breaking like distant snrf upon the shore. But within these walls we "are still and peaceful and| if we will, we may read in " brass and stony monument" the story not only of England's worthies, but of her religion, her politics, her art, and her literature for eight hundred years. — "The Children of Westminister Abbey,' by Rose G. Kirigsley.