wept and
rolled, which latter operation, like that of digging, ought to be
done by a labourer, although dragging a garden-roller has been
described as an excellent gymnastic exercise. Grass should be mowed
on every favourable opportunity; and where turf has been much worn
away, or where it is uneven, the objectionable portions must be
removed and replaced by better.

STORIES TOLD IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

_By_ EDWIN HODDER ("OLD MERRY").

V.--THE SANCTUARY, CLOISTERS, AND CHAPTER-HOUSE.

The Westminster Hospital and National Schools occupy the site of an
important portion of the precincts of Westminster Abbey as it was in
the olden times. This was the Sanctuary to which certain classes of
wrong-doers could flee for safety and escape the arm of the law. The
privilege of sanctuary had its uses in those troublous times; for it
enabled the innocent to take refuge where the tyrant dared not molest
them; but it also gave shelter to crowds of the lawless and depraved.

The Westminster Sanctuary was one out of about thirty attached to the
great English monasteries; in form it was a strong Norman fortress,
whose privileges were considered to be guaranteed by King Lucius,
King Sebert, and the apostle Peter himself. The Danes cared nothing
for sanctuaries, but Edward the Confessor re-organised the
institution with the Pope's aid.

There was great excitement and even consternation in London and
Westminster when in 1378 the privileges of the Abbey were tragically
violated. John of Gaunt had imprisoned in the Tower two knights who
had offended him. They escaped and rushed into sanctuary at
Westminster, but were soon pursued thither by the Constable of the
Tower and a company of armed men. The two knights were in the choir
of the Abbey attending high mass, and the deacon was just reading the
words "If the good man of the house had known what time the thief
would appear"--when the service was interrupted by the clash of arms.
One of the knights escaped, the other was chased twice round the
choir till he fell dead, pierced with twelve wounds. His servant and
one of the monks were killed at the same time. In consequence of this
desecration, the Abbey was shut up for four months; the chief
assailants were heavily fined and excommunicated.

In the fifteenth century, Edward the Fourth's Queen, Elizabeth
Woodville, was twice an inmate of the Sanctuary. On the first
occasion Edward V. was born here; on the second in 1483 her sec