the adjacent aisle. The King's thin face and strongly marked
features bear a striking resemblance to the ascetic lined countenance of
his mother, but are in strong contrast with those of the youthful wife by
his side, whose long flowing hair escapes under her close head-dress. In
the vacant space to the east, within the grille, an altar used to stand,
where precious relics, which included the leg of St. George, were kept.
In the vaults below, Dean Stanley found the coffins of James I. and of
Anne, his Danish queen. Close at hand is the altar tomb, with a white
marble effigy by Boehm, of the Dean himself; behind it is the memorial
window which he dedicated to his wife, Lady Augusta, whose own portrait
is delineated there {95} as well as various familiar scenes from the life
of her famous ancestor, Robert Bruce, including the well-known story of
the spider. The coronation chair at the extreme east end of the chapel
was made for Mary II., a queen regnant in her own right. Her husband,
William III., whose claim to the crown was considered equal to his
wife's, sat in St. Edward's chair. The vault in front of it is now
filled up with a miscellaneous collection of bodies, including some of
Charles the Second's illegitimate descendants, whose names were cut upon
the pavement, as were those of the other persons interred in this chapel,
by Dean Stanley's care. Within this vault once rested some of "the chief
men of the Parliament by land and sea," notably the regicides Cromwell,
Ireton, Bradshaw, a few of Cromwell's relatives, and the famous Admiral,
Robert Blake. These, as well as all the other persons buried in the
Abbey during the Commonwealth who were in any way connected with the
republican party, were disinterred by order of Charles II., shortly after
his restoration, and thrown into a pit in St. Margaret's churchyard, with
the exception, that is, of the three arch offenders, the regicides.
Charles wreaked a futile vengeance upon their mouldering corpses, which
{96} received the treatment usually meted out to living traitors, and
were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn; the heads were chopped off
and fixed up, as a warning to their admirers, outside Westminster Hall.
A few steps to the left we see the stone which marks the grave of
Cromwell's charming daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, whose untimely death
broke her father's heart. The body was left undisturbed, probably out of
respect for the memory of a woman who had