A STRANGE SCENE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VI, Issue 1866, 16 December 1884, Page 2

A STRANGE SCENE.

Shortly after V o'clock on October Uth, a strange soene (a correspondent' of the Pall Mall Gazettee says)' was witnessed in Westminister Abby. A crowd numbering'soo persons of both sex, young men in semiclerical attire predominating, knelt round the tomb of King Edward the Confessor, and engaged some time in prayer, during which the Roman Catholic practice of making the : sign of. the cross was indulged in, to the evident wonder of the ordinary visitors. It appears that thiß being the feast day of St, Edward,. King, and.Confessor, the anniversary was celebrated at the neighboring Roman Catholio Church of St. tfoter and St. Paul. Palace-street, Westminister (Cardinal Manning's parish), where in the presence of a, large congregation high.uiass was sung by the Right Rev. Dr. Patterson, Bishop of Emmaus, and a sermon. was preached by the Rev. George Akers, M.A., who detailed the. circumstances of the building of the abbey, and where the ashes of King Edward were interred, Tue_preacher invited the congregation to join the bishop and' clergy .'in a pilgrimage of. devotion to the shrine of St Edward, and implored his intercession for the conversion,of .England to-the ancient'faith, In' response to this invitation, the whole congregation accompanied the clergy to the Abbey, and performed their devotions in the manner above described, undisturbed bytha vergers or .authorities of the Abbey,