all the
cathedral churches of Europe are built in the general form of a cross,
the length of which lies always to the east and west.

The main body of the church is called the nave; the head of the cross is
the chancel; the two arms are the north and south transepts; and the
space formed by the intersection of the cross is called the choir. It is
in the choir, usually, that congregations assemble and the service is
performed, the whole church being usually too large for this purpose.
The space necessary for the use of the congregations is separated from
the rest of the floor by splendidly-carved and ornamented partitions,
which rise to a height of twenty or thirty feet above the floor--the
whole height of the church being often more than one hundred. These
partitions are called screens. But in order that the reader may
understand all this more perfectly, and also obtain a more full and
correct idea of the interior of the abbey, I give, on the adjoining
page, a ground plan of the edifice, which shows very distinctly its
general form, and the relative position of the various parts of it above
referred to. Near the margin of the drawing, on the right-hand side of
it, is seen the passage way leading to the Poet's Corner, where Mr.
George and Rollo came in. On the side which was upon their right hand as
they came in you see the ground plan of the great buttresses which
stand here against the wall of the church. On their left hand is the
octagon-shaped building, called the Chapter House. This building was
originally designed for the meetings of the body of ecclesiastics
connected with the cathedral.[C] In the corner between the Chapter House
and the church you can see the door opening into the church, where Mr.
George and Rollo came in. On entering they found themselves at A, which
is called the Poet's Corner, from the fact that the monuments of
Shakspeare, Dryden, Thomson, Goldsmith, and most of the other poets that
are interred or commemorated in the abbey, are placed here.

[C] Such a body of ecclesiastics is called a _chapter_.

The part A, as you see from the plan, is separated from the main portion
of the south transept by a range of columns. These columns rise to a
vast height in reaching the ceiling above. Of course only the places
where the columns stand, and the forms of the bases of them, are marked
on the plan. In other parts of the floor of the church, as, for example,
in the north transept, and along each sid