The abbey was full of monks
who had professed the Benedictine rule, and having but recently been
rebuilt, it possessed many improvements hardly yet introduced into
English architecture in general. The greater part of the building was of
stone, and it was not, in its general features, unlike some of the older
colleges at Oxford or Cambridge, although the order of the architecture
was, of course, exclusively that of the Saxon period, characterised by
the heavy and massive, yet imposing, circular arch.
But upon the church or abbey chapel all the skill of the architect had
been concentrated, and it seemed worthy alike of its founder and of its
object. Seen upon the morning in question, when the bright summer sun
filled every corner with gladsome light, just as the long procession of
white-robed priests, and monks in their sombre garb, with their hoods
thrown back, were entering for high mass, and the choral psalm arose, it
was peculiarly imposing.
The procession had not long entered the church, when the party of
pilgrims we have described, closely followed by our friends from
Aescendune, entered the quadrangle, and crossed it to the great porch of
the church. It was with the greatest difficulty they could enter, for
the whole floor of the huge building was crowded with kneeling
worshippers. The portion of Scripture appointed for the epistle was
being chanted, and the words struck Alfred's ears as he entered--"He
pleased God, and was beloved of Him, so that, living among sinners, he
was translated.
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