d on either side of the Atlantic, and of whom Americans are justly
proud. On the other column is that of the Scotch Archbishop of
Canterbury, Archibald Tait, placed here with intent, because in the
vicinity lies another Primate also of Scotch birth, Spottiswoode,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, a favourite with King James I., and by his
command historian of the Scottish Church.

* * * * * *

[Illustration: Chaucer's Tomb]

* * * *

CHAUCER'S TOMB

Before us is the monument, put up one hundred and fifty years after his
death, to Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and we see upon
the pavement wreaths which mark the graves of our two most distinguished
modern poets, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Robert Browning, and were placed
there no doubt by some visitor to the Abbey, who desired thus to show
honour to their memory. This spot is the very centre of the famous
Poets' Corner, and close by is the vault where lie the bones of Spenser,
and the pens and funeral odes of the poets who attended his funeral.

* * * * * *

Close together on the left are the monuments of three men, all of whom
were old Westminsters, two of them headmasters of the school. Busby and
Vincent were strict disciplinarians, whose belief in the efficacy of the
rod was afterwards equalled if not excelled by Dr. Keate at Eton. Busby
flogged impartially the boy with brains and the boy with none, but prided
himself in later life on having schooled many a budding genius, including
the future laureate, Dryden himself. Amongst those who smarted under his
discipline was the eloquent preacher, Dr. South, who reclines in marble
so peacefully by his side. For fifty-five years Busby ruled supreme at
Westminster School; he remained a Loyalist to the core throughout the
disturbing changes of the Commonwealth, and {54} continued faithful to
the Stuarts even under the disquieting regime which followed the
Restoration. South, who was a Prebendary, is remembered here for his
refusal of the Deanery, a post which Dr. Vincent, whose medallion is
between these monuments, accepted (1816) a century after South's death.
So excessive was his use of the rod that Southey, a schoolboy at the
time, raised an energetic protest against the headmaster's tyranny, and
was forthwith expelled from Westminster. When he became Dean, however,
Vincent turned his superfluous energy to