Westminster Abbey: Wax Effigies of Kings and Queens

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Arthur H. Beavan, in Imperial London, 1901, continued his look at Westminster Abbey with a mention of the wax effigies of Royalty which could be viewed on application in 1900:

On one occasion, I wanted to show some friends, who I had taken to see Westminster Abbey, the famous wax effigies of Royalty (they could in 1900 be seen by the public on payment of a small fee); so I applied, according to instruction, at the Deanery, and we were placed in charge of the Clerk of the Works, who took us first for a delightful ramble in the seldom-visited triforium - a gallery above the aisles - where, tradition says, the nuns used to follow the solemn offices of the Church.

It is not altogether improbable that this spacious and quiet area was used by Caxton as his printing-house.

Walking right round the Abbey triforium, we got to the back of Edward the Confessor's chapel and looked down into his shrine, where is a wooden chest which may or may not contain his highly venerated bones.

But anyhow the view is superb.

Down the choir and along the nave - both the loftiest in England - the eye travels to the west window, some 375 feet away.

Right and left of us rose a forest of 'slender shafts of shapely stone' that on a gloomy day are almost lost to sight in the distance; while beneath us the monuments looked like portions of some colossal scheme of mosaic pavement.

The Clerk of the Works told us that the pillars of the junction of the nave, transepts, and choir, from which he had taken borings, though apparently slight, are of enormous toughness and durability, capable of supporting a central tower.

No doubt, a kind of light fleche, somewhat like that of Notre Dame in Paris, was originally intended, and in some old verses (temp. Henry III) there is a reference to the two western towers and to the then existing central steeple.

But the object of our visit being neither the triforium nor the Westminster Abbey pillars, we came down to see the waxen effigies.

Dean Stanley says: 'The effigies at royal funerals can be traced as far as the fourteenth century. After a time they were detached from the hearses and kept in the Abbey, generally near the graves of the deceased, but were gradually drafted off into wainscot presses in a chantry above the Islip chapel.'

At one time there was quite a collection of waxen royalties, shown by the keeper of the tombs to anybody who cared to pay the fee of one penny.

But even in 1754 they were in a deplorable condition, some stripped of their finery, others in tattered robes, all more or less marred and broken, for visitors were in the habit of filching anything valuable, and were allowed to do pretty much as they liked in the old Abbey.

Thus the bulk of the wax effigies became absolute wrecks and were hidden from public gaze.

The few that remain intact are, Queen Elizabeth, wearing a magnificent ruff of real lace; William and Mary (in a glass case together); Queen Anne, crowned, and in state robes; and Charles II, in the ordinary dress of the period, looking very saturnine and uncanny.

The Clerk of the Works told us that once he had occasion to open the case wherein the Merry Monarch's (Charles I) 'double' reposes, for the purpose of cleaning the figure, and with some trepidation approached the task, fearing it might fall to pieces; but on carefully applying a silk handkerchief to the face, he found it in excellent condition.

This effigy used to stand just over Charles I's grave, and is, perhaps, the best preserved of the lot, and is said by Dean Stanley to have always attracted special attention.

Next: Westminster Abbey exterior view