Last Wednesday, I found myself in Westminster Abbey where Hawksmoor’s east towers were looking their best:-
It was also a pleasure to see the tombs. I had forgotten what an extraordinary miscellany the nave presents of the great and the good: Thomas Tompion, so well known that he needed no description; Congreve, erected by the Duchess of Marlborough; Newton, so prominent. And the unremembered.
I came out by the West door:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
The most under-rated church in Britain due to over exposure.
Organ recitals at 5pm a treat btw
As is evensong. Anyone can walk in .
It is a great building on so many levels : its history, architecture, construction, tombs, sculpture etc etc.
I was particularly impressed by the amazing quality and range of the tombs, which I must have seen before, but hadn’t properly registered. Charles
I just welcomed to my library the fabulous two volumes of ” The History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster” (1823) by John Preston Neale and Edward Wedlake Brayley published by Hurst, Robinson, and Co. The perfect guide to a great building.
It’s a fabulous account of the wealth of monuments present at the beginning of the 19th C illustrated beautifully by Neale’s numerous and detailed edgings – I can only recommend!
Thank you. A fine, esoteric suggestion ! Charles