The coronation of English sovereigns has taken place beneath the central tower of the choir ever since it was first built, and there was something ominous and pathetic in the fact that the same day witnessed the funeral of its founder, Edward the Confessor, and the coronation of his ill-fated successor, Harold, a king but in the name, whose three weeks' reign ended in a bloody death.
The next time the abbey was crowded with the spectators of a pageant it rung with the shouts which welcomed William the Norman to the long-coveted English throne, and from that day until the present almost every change, whether of ruler or of dynasty, has been ratified on the same spot.
The north and south transepts and the nave of the abbey are alike crowded with monuments to men of note, affording the student of art a good opportunity of examining the work of our native and naturalized sculptors, especially that of Bird, Roubiliac, Rysbraeck, Westmacott, and Joseph.