duties as an English king.

Round the shrine of St. Edward are several small chapels, but of their
dedication or the special devotions originally carried on in them very
little seems to be known. We know that there were altars with perpetual
lamps burning, and venerated crucifixes, and an abundance of relics.
Those placed here by Henry III. I have already spoken of; besides these,
there was a "Girdle of the Virgin" and other fragments of holy dresses,
given by Edward the Confessor. Good Queen Maud gave a large portion of
the hair of Mary Magdalene; and amongst other relics deposited here at
various times were "a phial of the Holy Blood" and the vestments of St.
Peter. At the porch of the Chapel of St. Nicholas was buried, in 1072,
a Bishop Egelric, who had been imprisoned for two years at Westminster,
but who by his "fastings and tears had so purged away his former crimes
as to acquire a reputation" for sanctity. His fetters were buried with
him, and his grave was a place of great resort for pilgrims in the time
of the early Norman kings.

[Illustration: LITTLE FE'S FRIEND. "_LITTLE FE_" (_p. 218_).]

But it was the shrine of Edward the Confessor, with its beautiful
surroundings, its grand musical services, and its abundant holy relics,
that formed the chief attraction to pilgrims, and yet only the barest
hints and allusions have come down to us as to what was going on for
centuries in the great centre of English religious life.

Of one event that took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century
we have full particulars. Islip (under whom Henry the Seventh's Chapel
was completed) was abbot when the red hat of a cardinal was sent from
Rome to adorn the head of Wolsey. The Pope's messenger rode through
London with the hat in his hand, and with the Bishop of Lincoln riding
on one side of him and the Earl of Essex on the other. A grand escort of
nobles and prelates accompanied. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen on
horseback and the City guilds were ranged along Cheapside. The hat was
carried triumphantly at the head of the procession to Westminster, and
received at the Abbey door by Abbot Islip and several other abbots, all
in their robes of state. For three days the hat reposed on the high
altar, and then came Wolsey with a grand retinue from his palace at
Charing Cross to the Abbey, and a goodly company of archbishops,
bishops, and abbots, performed a solemn service. Wolsey knelt on the
altar steps, and the Archbishop of