Westminster Abbey

 Westminster Abbey is a crazy place to check out, in my opinion.  There is a religious aspect of course, in fact every hour on the hour a prayer is said over the loudspeaker.  The day we were there was a few days after the deadly tornado in Oklahoma, so they were included in the prayer. What I am referring to when I mention that it is "crazy", however" is the massive amount of people that are buried inside! Some are nicely buried in the floor under a demure tile, such as in Poet's corner--which I will come back to-- but a very large lot of them are giant stone coffins with a life-size stone replica of the body right on top...even babies.  Not what I call awesome, just saying. Of course, if you were lucky enough to get a life size stone dummy of yourself over your coffin and also got to have your eternal rest inside Westminster Abbey, then you must have had a lot of power in the day; quite the Lord or Lady.  Some of the people lucky enough to acquire an aforementioned tomb were Henry III, Edward I, Eleanor of Castile, Edward III, Philippa of Hainault, Richard II with his queen Anne of Bohemia, and Henry V.  Edward the Confessor got a whole shrine, so he must have been something special, eh? To answer that question, yes, he was special, he has an entire chapel in the Abbey because he was King at a point.

    My favorite part of the Abbey was definitely Poet's Corner (told you I'd come back to it, don't you trust me?).  It was not originally meant to be a burial place of writers and poets, but now it is one of the most famous parts of the Abbey. Some of the poets who have plaques are buried there and others are just commemorated with a memorial. Some that are buried are Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy.  Charles Dickens' grave, more than 110 years later, a wreath is still laid on his tomb every year on the anniversary of his death.

Memorials (and buried elsewhere) include William Wordsworth, John Keats, Robert Burns, William Blake, T.S. Elliot, Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, and Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte (the Bronte sisters...if you couldn't crack. that. code).  Also, about a billion more commemorate for their excellency in language, but this is not a role call, so you can GOogle that your-DAMN-self :)

<<GRAVES! ooOOooohhhHHhhh.


...anddddd we're done here.

Walala walala bing bang,
                Abby M.