Irving, Washington / 2008-09-22 00:00:00
1819-20
THE SKETCH BOOK
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
by Washington Irving
When I behold, with deep astonishment,
To famous Westminster how there resorte
Living in brasse or stoney monument,
The princes and the worthies of all sorte;
Doe not I see reformde nobilitie,
Without contempt, or pride, or ostentation,
And looke upon offenselesse majesty,
Naked of pomp or earthly domination?
And how a play-game of a painted stone
Contents the quiet now and silent sprites,
Whome all the world which late they stood upon
Could not content or quench their appetites.
Life is a frost of cold felicitie,
And death the thaw of all our vanitie.
CHRISTOLERO'S EPIGRAMS, BY T. B. 1598.
ON ONE of those sober and rather melancholy days, in the latter part
of Autumn, when the shadows of morning and evening almost mingle
together, and throw a gloom over the decline of the year, I passed
several hours in rambling about Westminster Abbey.
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