is entirely lost sight of in London, the intending visitor will
be well advised if he walk to the Abbey by the parks. From the bridge
over the Serpentine he gets a distant view, and all the way, by Green
Park and St. James's, there are glimpses of the Westminster Towers. At
present, in the temporary absence of any building where the old
aquarium used to be, he has but to cross Birdcage Walk, take the old
Cockpit passage into Queen Anne's Gate, and from Dartmouth Street, just
across the way, he will see a magnificent view of the Abbey Church with
her small daughter, St Margaret, by her side. {11} As he approaches
nearer, down Tothill Street, the ugly Western Towers, which we owe in
the first instance to Wren's incapacity to understand Gothic
architecture, in the second to his successor Hawkesmore's want of taste
in the execution, become too prominent.

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[Illustration: View of the Abbey and St. Margaret's Church from
Whitehall]

* * * *

GENERAL VIEW OF THE ABBEY FROM WHITEHALL

The traveller who approaches Westminster from this direction has a fine
view of the whole extent of the Abbey from east to west. St.
Margaret's Church, while it certainly somewhat hides the more ancient
building, adds to the impression of size. The statues of statesmen on
the green in front prepare the minds of those who enter the north
transept by the triple doorway, which we have already seen in the
frontispiece, for the galaxy of politicians within, and when we stand
beneath the lantern we can realise the plan of the whole far better
after this general view than we could if we had entered immediately by
the west door at the farther end.

* * * * * *

Below the offending towers is the west front, which was finished as far
as the roof in the first years of Henry VII.'s reign, under those two
indefatigable abbots, Esteney and Islip. Tudor badges are visible in
the last bays of the nave vaulting: the great west window with its fine
Perpendicular tracery probably belongs to Esteney's time (the last few
years of the fifteenth century); and to Islip, who is often credited
with the whole, we now attribute only the finishing touches which
completed the west end. Henry and Islip were so beguiled by their
fascinating plans for a new chapel at the east end, that they could
spare neither money nor attention to the fact that towers were a