rch of St. Margaret's
stands outside Westminster Abbey. Within, we can see, in imagination,
the people walking about--they have not yet begun to stand bareheaded in
church--some dictating to the scribes: some leaning against the tombs:
some sitting on the bases of the great round pillars--there were no
pews, benches, or chairs in the Cathedral: the chantry priests are
saying masses in the chapels: the people are kneeling before the golden
shrine of St. Erkenwald, resplendent with lights, jewels, gold, and
silver: women lay their offerings before the miraculous crucifix praying
for the restoration to health of son or husband: a wedding is celebrated
in one chapel: a funeral mass is being said in another: servants gather
about a certain pillar waiting to be hired: porters carrying baskets on
their heads enter at the north door and tramp through, going out of the
south: processions of priests and choir pass up and down the aisles: the
organ peals and echoes along the long and lofty roof. See; here comes a
troop of men. They carry instruments of music: they are dressed in a
livery, a cloak of green: they march together entering at the western
doors and tramping through the whole length of the church to the chapel
of Our Lady in the East. This is the Guild of the Minstrels. There were
many other guilds attached to the Cathedral. You shall learn presently
what was the meaning of these guilds.

24. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

PART II.

Such was Paul's in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth the
Reformation came. The candles were all put out; the shrines were
destroyed; the altars were taken out of the chapels: the miraculous
images were taken away: the church, compared with its previous
condition, became a shell. The choir was walled off for public worship:
the rest of the church became a place of public resort: the poets of the
time are full of allusions to Paul's Walk. It was a common thoroughfare
even for men leading pack horses and asses. The Cathedral, left to
neglect, began to fall into a ruinous condition. An attempt was made at
restoration: funds were collected, but they came in slowly. Laud, who
became Bishop of London in 1631, gave an impetus to the work: the
celebrated Inigo Jones was appointed architect: in order to prevent the
church from being turned into an Exchange, he built a West Porch, which
is shown in some of the pictures of St. Paul's. In the time of the
Commonwealth this portico was let off in s