er head and armour of Henry V.
were stolen in the reign of Henry VIII., after the monks, those careful
custodians of the Abbey, had been dispersed. The silver cradle on the
tomb of Edward IV.'s little daughter vanished later. We look around and
see the empty places on Henry III.'s tomb whence the mosaics and jewels
have been picked out; the arms of Richard II. and his queen are missing;
that once wonderful work of art, Philippa's monument, so well described
by Sir Gilbert Scott, is a ruin. The Coronation Chair, now raised safely
out of {73} harm's way, is actually covered with the names of tourists.
Yet neither Henry VIII. nor the Protestant Protector Somerset, not even
those scapegoats the Puritan soldiers, are altogether to blame for these
and other acts of vandalism. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries people seem to have roamed about the Abbey, occasionally
accompanied by a verger, usually free to write their names or to break
off relics. The glass cases of the wax effigies, which are covered with
such records, bear witness to the careless guardianship of the church in
former days.

* * * * * *

[Illustration: The Tomb of Henry III. from St. Edward's Chapel]

* * * *

THE TOMB OF HENRY III. FROM ST. EDWARD'S CHAPEL, LOOKING EAST

The tomb of our second founder, the builder of this portion of the Abbey
Church, has, like the shrine of St. Edward, suffered much from the
despoiler's hand. The tomb was made by the same Italian workmen who were
employed upon the shrine, but the effigies, both of Henry and his
daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Castile, who is buried at his feet, are by an
Englishman, one William Torel. We see on this side one of the porphyry
slabs which Edward I. brought with him from the Continent, when he
returned from the Crusades a year after his father's death. In the
niches below, some of the most precious relics were kept. Beyond the
small black marble tomb of Elizabeth Tudor is that of Queen Eleanor,
first wife of Edward I., flanked by one of the entrance turrets to the
Chantry of Henry V.

* * * * * *

Fortunately there is still much left, and nothing can touch the
historical interest even of these mutilated tombs. One little pillar on
the shrine itself is practically intact, and from the north ambulatory,
above the reach of a man's arm, we shall see some of the mosaic
decorat