eir church, for the Saxons were not Christians, and they came to
harry and ravage and burn; but after a long time, when the Saxons had
made themselves lords of London and settled down, the Saxon king himself
became a Christian, and so he rebuilt the church by the river. There is
an old legend told about Westminster which, whether you believe it or
not, is pretty. It is said that on the eve of the day when the new
church was to be consecrated and dedicated to St. Peter, one Edric, a
fisherman, who lived close by, was awakened in the night by a voice
calling him. He thought the voice came out of the darkness on the other
side of the river, and as he often had to bring people across in his
boat, he went to find the person who called. On landing he found a very
venerable-looking man, who carried some vessels that looked like holy
vessels used in church. Edric wondered, but said nothing, and rowed him
across, and when they reached the church the stranger entered, and all
at once the church was lit up by a radiant light, and a thousand lovely
voices were heard singing like angels. Then when they ceased the light
disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and the stranger turned and
said: 'I am St. Peter, and I have hallowed the church myself. I charge
thee to tell the bishop, and for a sign put forth upon the river and
cast in thy nets, and thou shalt receive a miraculous draught of
fishes.'

So the fisherman did as he was told, and he found that the fishes
enclosed in his net were so many that he could scarcely raise them from
the water.

The same fate befell the Saxon church that had befallen the British one,
for the Danes came down on England to plunder and to harry the Saxons,
as the Saxons had harried the Britons, and they destroyed the church.
After a hundred years the Danes, too, became Christians, and then the
church was built once more. King Edward the Confessor caused a great
part of this new church to be built, and since his time the magnificent
Abbey that now stands has grown up bit by bit around his church, being
added to and enriched by many kings.

Since the very earliest times it has been used as the burial-place of
kings and great men. It would be quite impossible to tell the names of
all those who lie here--poets, soldiers, artists, statesmen, and
authors--their graves are thick beneath the stones of the Abbey. It is
the greatest honour that the nation can offer any man to give him burial
in Westminster Abbe