ation: Interior of the South Transept]

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INTERIOR OF THE SOUTH TRANSEPT

The illustration shows the south transept proper, looking towards the
great rose window. On our right we see the historical side, to our left
is Poets' Corner; from here the statue of Shakespeare is the most
conspicuous, standing out from the mass of other memorials which
commemorate poets and literary men. The glass in the window above and
the lights below it are quite modern, placed there as a memorial to the
late Duke of Westminster in 1902.

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Upon our right is the so-called "historical" side of the transept, where
are collected the monuments of many distinguished literary men, not
historians only, whose names are more familiar to us than {42} the
majority of poetasters who were honoured with tributes in Poets' Corner
proper. The busts of Grote and Thirlwall were placed here by Dean
Stanley, in close proximity to other classical scholars. These two
friends each compiled a history of Greece without the other's knowledge,
till the publication of Thirlwall's surprised Grote, but made no change
in their friendship. They are buried in the same grave, near Macaulay.
We tread now upon the tombstone of Dean Ireland; with him rests the
companion of his youth and the friend of his maturity, William Gifford,
editor of the _Quarterly Review_ at the time when its biting reviews cut
many a rising poet, including Keats, to the heart. Ireland's name must
ever be held dear by all visitors to the Abbey, for under his orders the
nave and transepts, formerly accessible only on payment of a fee, were
opened free to the general public. The quaint half-figure of William
Camden claims our attention next. We see the famous antiquary and
historian "in habit as he lived," with his hand upon his great work, the
_Britannia_. Camden belongs to Westminster in every sense: as a boy he
was a _protege_ of Goodman's, as a young man he became usher, and he
ultimately rose to be headmaster of the school. {43} Later on he gave up
teaching in order to devote himself to antiquarian research, encouraged
by the approval of the Queen, and supported by the salary he received as
Herald. He continued to dwell in Dean's Yard, and loved to wander in the
Abbey, meditating amongst the tombs; the fruit of his solitary hours here
was the first attempt at a guide-book, a list of the monuments, which
wa