Since dean Stanley (q.v.) became connected with the abbey in 1864, much has been i done to restore and improve the interior, and services conducted in it have attracted much public interest; more especially the anniversary of the foundation, celebrated on Dee. 28, 1865, and the mission sermon delivered by prof. Max Muller on Dec. 3, 1873, when the dean of an abbey asserted his right to allow a layman to preach there.
South of the abbey are the Pyx house, chapter-house—since 1866 restored under the direction of sir Gilbert Scott—cloisters, and the building occupied by Westminster school, formerly the monks' dormitory, etc. Westminster school was founded by queen 'Elizabeth for the education of 40 boys known as queen's scholars, who are prepared for the universities, Other persons send their sons to it, and it has long been one of the leading English public schools.
The city of Westminster prang up round the abbey, and the English kings, in conse of the jealousy with they regarded the privileges claimed by the citizens of London, early took up their abode there. Before Edward the confessor began to build his new church at Westminster, the residences of the English kings had been the Roman fortress in London, or the Saxon city of Winchester. The king, to superintend the building of the church, took up his abode in the palace. William Rufus, in 1097, erected a palace between the abbey and the Thames. Its chief apartment was a banquet ing hall, which, becoming ruinous in the time of Richard IL, he pulled down, and erected in 1397-99, on the same site, and indeed on the same foundations, the great hall which still exists, It is 90 ft. high, and 290 ft. long, by 68 ft. wide internally, and is roofed by 13 great ribs of timber, combined with a mechanical skill which has not been excelled in any work of the present age. The roof of Westminster hall is the finest specimen of the purely English art of forming a Gothic roof of wood: with the exception, perhaps. of the ball of justice at Padua, it is the largest roof in Europe unsupported by pillars.. The law coups were established at the hall in 1224, and they continue to be held in buildings which rest on the northern side of the building, and open into it by side-doors. These law-courts, as an excrescence and out of place, are to be removed to the new buildings now being erected near Lincoln's Inn Fields.
The old houses of parliament which adjoined the hull, and like it lay between the abbey and the Thames, were burned to the ground in 1834. It was then determined to erect a new building on the same site, but on a much grander scale. The designs of sir Charles Barry for " the new palace of Westminster" were selected as the best, and the work was begun in 1840. The building is the most magnificent erected in this country
for many centuries. It may be roughly said to form a parallelogram, 900 ft. long by 300 ft. in width. The principal rooms are the house of lords and the house of commons, which occupy the center of the building, and run ou the line of its greatest length. They are separated by au " octagon hall," with a diameter of 70 ft. between the walls. From this ball, one corridor runs n. to the house of commons, and another s. to the house of lords, beyond which are the royal apartments at the extreme s. of the building. The entrance to the " octagon hall" is by a passage known 2IS St. Stephen's hall, which com municates by flights of steps with an entrance in the e. front. aud also with Westminster ball, which, included in the new building, forms its northern vestibule. The state of the queen is at the soutL-western est vemity, and is, of course, in direct com liniment ion with the royal apartments. The building is surmounted by lofty spires and towers. In the center, above the octagon hall, rises the central tower, 300 ft. high. At each corner there are towers; at the s.w. the Victoria tower, 346 ft. high; at the n. w. the clock-tower, surmounted by a belfry spire 320 ft. high. The clock has 4 faces, each 30 ft. in diameter; and it strikes the hours on a bell weighing 9 tons, and known as Big Ben. The appearance of the eastern front is still marred by the buildings occupied as law courts, and it is believed that, on their removal, the picturesque outline of the palace, seen from the n.e., will for the first time prove all the merit of the architect's designs. The chief subject of regret in connection with the edifice is, that the stone of which it was built, a magneSian limestone from Yorkshire, has rapidly decayed, and that it has, in consequence, been found impossible to protect the rich ornaments of the exterior from the influence of the atmosphere. Many public improvements have been carried out recently in Westminster, the chief being the construction of the Thames embankment, opened July 13, 1870, which forms a broad and magnificent thoroughfare between the houses of parliament and Somerset house; and the erection of the Indian and foreign offices at the eastern extremity of St. James's park, and thrown open to par liament in December, 1873. See Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey (3d edition, Lond., 1809); Dedication of Westminster Abbey, by Dean Stanley; The ffem,orials of War minster, by rev. Mackenzie E. C. Walcott (1851).