THE REV. CHARLES CLARK'S LECTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8387, 15 October 1890, Page 5

THE REV. CHARLES CLARK'S LECTURE.

WESTMINSTER, ABBEY. For his second lecture in Auckland yesterday evening the Rev. Charles Clark selected a subject in which there was more room for personality and description than in that of " Charles Dickens," the subject of his first address, and there was a scope opened to him which no other subject could have rendered more expansive. With the history of Westminster Abbey is indelibly associated the history of the British nation. The ancient edifice contains the historic landmarks of the people, and within its shrines are entombed those who, not only by birth but by genius, have left their "footprints on the sands of time," and have left the world better than they found it. It was in this spirit that the versatile lecturer entered apon and carried out his lecture, treating it in it. his own unequalled manner in its humorous phases, in light and shade, it descriptive tones, and in eloquent pa-sages. Commencing by a brief introduction on the feeling of sympathy elicited by the antique, and that in the monuments of their native land were emblazoned in poems on stone the history of the mtion, he referred to the feelings which vould be given rise to by a visit to Westminster Abbey, say, by a person born in tlia colony, and then in picturesque language led tho fancy to the time when the site of that great structure was a swamp, and the changes which followed, up to the formation of the Thames Embankment. The Isleof Thorns, now Westminster, hid, it was-said, always a church, and lie depicted the grand and solemn majesty of the church erected there by Edward the Confessor. In a graphic sketch he gave an historical outline of the time from the | death of Edward the Confessor to the battle of Hastings and the consecration of William in Westminster, paying a high tribute to the chivalry of the Normans. He then alluded to the additions made to the Abbey by succeeding monarchs, stating that to Henry 111. they were indebted for the restored Abbey. Edward I. brought to it the coronation stone—the stone of destiny—from Scotland, the Scotch having originally received it from Ireland, and over that stone every English monarch had since been consecrated. Diverging into history—without, however, leaving his subject Mr. Clark made reference to the outburst against feudalism, to John Ball who was the first to preach " the land for tho people," and who taught that " Adam delved and Eve span and who was then tho gentleman?" to the insurrection of Jack Cade and Wat Tyler, and to tho results of that insurrection. Coming back to the tomb of Henry V,, he depicted in beautiful phraseology tho pageants which greeted him on his return from his French victories, and recited with great power and expression the King's address to his army, "Once More Unto the Breach," "God for Harry, England, and St. George." He then followed the history of the nation, alluding to Henry Vll.'s extension of the abbey. In. pathetic terms he alluded to _ the splendour of Anne Boleyn's coronation and her second march from the Tower to her tragic end. To no character did he pay a higher tribute than to that of Elizabeth, notwithstanding her faults and mistakes, and in alluding to her resting place said that her illustrious victim Mary Queen of Scots lay in the opposite chancel. Alluding to the tomb of Dean Stanley, to whom the lecturer paid a high tribute as the most unecclesiastical of

ecclesiastics, he said that the Bishop of London had remarked that the most distinguished Nonconformist in his diocese was the Dean of» Westminster. Passing over Cromwell, who was to be the subject of another lecture, ho referred to the brilliant victories of Admiral Blake, and in scathing terms to the conduct of Charles 11., the " Merry Monarch," in ordering his bones to bo exhumed, although, thanks to Dean Stanley, the tablet showing where they had rested, existed. After a brief reference to the transept containing the relics of distinguished statesmen, the lecturor turned with evident delight to the Poet's Corner, which he designated the most precious spot of land on England's soil. This opened a splendid field for the gifted orator when dwelling on the greatness of the genius of the mighty dead, but ho did not fail to infuse some humour into the subject by reference to what Mark Twain would call the Abbey guides. In pathetic tones ho referred to tho tablet in tho south transept under which, on the last day of the last year Robert Browning was interred adjacent to the resting places of Joseph Addison, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Charles Dickens. Ho concluded by saying that deeply as they loved their family graves in Westminster Abbey, there were many equally worthy who rested in remote churchyards in hills and valleys, and he concluded by a splendid peroration, at the conclusion of which he was warmly applauded. "Thackeray and the Snob Family," is to be the subject of this evening'& J cture.