St Margaret's, Westminster

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BEAUTIFUL ROYAL NAVY SOLID BRASS COMPASS LONDON 1941
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ROSS, LONDON EARLY STEREO PRISM BINOCULARS #63412
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Arthur H. Beavan continued his survey of London churches in Imperial London, 1901, with this look at St Margaret's, Westminster:

St. Margaret's, Westminster, originally dating from the period of Edward the Confessor, successively destroyed, rebuilt, altered, repaired, and finally restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1878-9, was in 1900 under the special care of the House of Commons, to which in a sense it pertains as a parish church, and the votes for its renovation and adornment had been considerable and frequent.

The interior of St. Margaret's is a fine example of the Perpendicular style, its nave with panelled oak roof being particularly beautiful, but its chief attraction is its celebrated east window, placed there in the reign of Henry VII, and which represents the Crucifixion; while the west window, presented by American citizens in memory of Sir Walter Raleigh, whose body lies in the chancel, always commands attention.

Undoubtedly, the curiosity of the parish is the "Westminster tobacco-box."

Its intrinsic value is great, for it bears silver engravings of rare workmanship; but of more importance is its history.

From a small horn tobacco-box, value fourpence half­penny, purchased at Horn Fair, Plumstead, and presented to the Past Overseers' Society of Westminster in 1713, it had developed into a casket of one hundred and ten pounds weight!

A silver rim was first added to it, and, later, a silver side case and bottom, other overseers continuing the process of adornment, until it became entirely encased.

Their successors thus finding themselves debarred from adding any further embellishment, deftly built another box around the original one, and this being repeated, it has reached the present dimensions of thirty inches by twenty-four.

The churchyard is absolutely crowded with human bodies, amongst them being the remains of Sir William Waller, Parliamentarian General, and Colonel Blood, who tried to steal the regalia; while within the church lies the immortal Caxton.

Ancient monuments abound, especially in the ante-church, and one of the quaintest epitaphs is on a tablet to one Cole, M.P., whose death in 1597, his widow Margaretta deplores in many lines, from which I quote the following:

"In Parliament a burgess Cole was placed,
In Westminster the like for many years;
But now with saints above his soul is graced,
And lives a burgess with Heav'n's royal peers."

Next: London churches in 1900: St Martin's-in-the-Fields