ecration. The Royalist
stories of soldiers smoking and singing round the communion table, and
playing boisterous games about the church and chapels, have not been
proved. But Sir Robert Harley, who had taken down the Eleanor crosses at
Cheapside and Charing Cross, destroyed the richly-ornamented altar
erected in memory of Edward VI. The crown, sceptre, and coronation robes
were brought out of the treasury, and Wither, the poet, was arrayed in
them for the amusement of the party engaged in the affair. Soon
afterwards these historic national treasures were sold.

For nearly six years the celebrated Westminster Assembly of Divines sat
in the Chapel of Henry VII. and the Jerusalem Chamber, compiling
catechisms and confessions of faith, which are still of authority
amongst the Presbyterians. Whilst the assembly was sitting, Bradshaw
(who sentenced Charles I. to death) was living at the deanery. He used
to be fond of climbing up into a solitary chamber in the south-western
tower, which was long reputed to be haunted by his ghost.

At the Restoration the Protestant services, of course, replaced the
Presbyterian ones, and we catch a glimpse of Charles II. conducted round
the Dean's Yard by the famous Westminster schoolmaster, Dr. Busby. On
this occasion, as the story goes, the doctor kept his hat on his head
for fear his boys should think there was a greater man than himself in
the world. The Stuarts had learned nothing from adversity, and on May
20th, 1688, an occurrence in the Abbey shows us what was the feeling of
the nation. On that day Dean Sprat began to read King James's
Declaration of Indulgence. Immediately, there was such a tumultuous
noise in the church that nobody could hear him speak. Before he had
finished, the congregation had disappeared, and only the officials and
Westminster scholars remained gazing at the dean, who could scarcely
hold the proclamation for trembling.

I want now to call your attention once more to the Chapel of Henry VII.,
in which the banners of the Knights of the Bath form a conspicuous
feature. We first heard of these knights in connection with the
coronation of Richard II. They rode in the coronation processions till
the end of the seventeenth century. It was originally the custom at each
coronation for a number of knights to be created before the royal
procession started from the Tower. For a long time they were not
connected with any special order, but as the bath formed a conspicuous