ng the Thames, at a little distance from the bank of the river. It is
bordered on both sides by magnificent public edifices, such as the Horse
Guards, the Admiralty, Westminster Hall, the Houses of Parliament, and
the Treasury. Conspicuous among these and other similar edifices, and in
the midst of paved courts and green gardens, stands the venerable group
of buildings famed through all the world as Westminster Abbey.

Mr. George and Rollo, when they approached the abbey, saw a current of
people moving towards the building. These people turned off from the
sidewalk to a paved alley, which led along a sort of court. This court
was bounded by a range of ordinary, but ancient-looking, houses on one
side, and a very remarkable mass of richly-carved and ornamented Gothic
architecture, which evidently pertained to the abbey, on the other. On
the wall of the row of houses was a sign, on which were inscribed the
words, "TO THE POET'S CORNER."

"This must be the way," said Mr. George to Rollo.

So Mr. George and Rollo fell into the current, and walked up the alley.
They came, at length, to a low-arched door in the wall of a building,
which, from the massive stone buttresses that supported it, and the rich
carvings and sculptures which were seen about the doors and windows, and
the antique and timeworn appearance which was exhibited in every feature
of it, was evidently a part of the abbey.

"This is the place," said Mr. George to Rollo, "there is no doubt."

Mr. George entered at the door, followed by Rollo, and they were ushered
at once into a scene of the most extraordinary and impressive character.
They found themselves in the midst of a splendid panorama of columns,
statues, monuments, galleries, and ranges of arches and colonnades,
which seemed to extend interminably in every direction, and to rise to
so vast a height that the eye seemed to be lost in attempting to reach
the groins and arches in which they terminated above. Here and there, at
various places more or less remote, were to be seen windows of stained
glass, through which beams of colored light streamed down through groups
of columns, and over the carved and sculptured ornaments of screens and
stalls, and among innumerable groups and figures of monumental marble.

The place where Mr. George and Rollo entered the church was in the south
transept, as it is called; that is, in the southern arm of the cross
which is formed by the ground plan of the church. Almost