WESTMINSTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

WESTMINSTER.

The story of Westminster Abbey begins with a beautiful legend, and the memory of it seems to linger like a saint's halo round the grey old walls and stately towers that you have seen in pictures. It was in the seventh century, eo the fable goes, that Sebert King of the last Saxons, who had already built St. Paul's Cathedral in London, determined to found another minster at Thorney, "a place overgrown with bushes and briars exceedingly," where in still older times there had been a little community of monks. The new church was to be dedicated to the Apostle St. Peter, and arrangements were made for its consecration, at which Mellitus, the Bishop of London was to officiate. On the eve of the ceremony, it happened that a poor fisherman of Thorney, named Edric, was mending his rets on the Thames bank, when he heard a voice hailing him from the .opposite shore. The night was wild and cold, rain was falling, and the river was in flood,, but Edric did not hesitate to obey the command, and rowing across witk great difficulty, he 1 -- found a wayfarer, who begged to be taken to Thorney. Once more Edric set out ,on his perilous voyage, and once more he crossed the stream in safety. Then the stranger, after bidding him watch, turned away and disappeared in the darkness. , A few minutes later, to Edric's amazement, lights shone out from the windows of the nevv minster, and there came to his ears the sounds of music and chanting voices, as if a great religious ceremony were taking placeMSefore long' the mysterious stranger returned, and told the fisherman to go to Mellitus and relate what he had seen, saying tha-t he, St. Peter, lad come in person to consecrate his own church. Mellitus, we hear, listened and believed, declaring that no other ceremony was necessary, -when the minster had already 'been dedicated in such a saintly fashion. And now we pass on, from the mists of legend, to the clearer light of history. Sebert's Church was destroyed hy Danish invaders, who laid Thorney Island waste, -and then the Saxon kings were • restored, and Edward the Confessor came to the throne. He it was who founded ' the present Abbey, and although nearly a thousand years have passed, and there have been many alterations and restora- ' tionSj some of the old Norman fabric still remains.