[256] It seemed, therefore, to him that the present occasion was an excellent beginning of the recognition of the Abbey as what it had been called, —the Valhalla of the English-speaking people. He trusted this beginning would not be the end of its application in this respect.
The company then proceeded to Poets' Corner, where, taking his stand in front of the covered bust, The Sub-Dean then said: ‘I feel to-day that a double solemnity attaches to this occasion which calls us together. There is first the familiar fact that to-day we are adding another name to the great roll of illustrious men whom we commemorate within these walls, that we are adding something to that rich heritage which we have received of national glory from our ancestors, and which we feel bound to hand over to our successors, not only unimpaired, but even increased. There is then the novel and peculiar fact which attaches to the erection of a monument here to the memory of Henry Longfellow. In some sense, poets—great poets like him— may be said to be natives of all lands; but never before have the great men of other countries, however brilliant and widespread their fame, been admitted to a place in Westminster Abbey. A century ago America was just commencing her perilous path of independence and selfernment. ’
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Boston and New York, Hougton, Mifflin and company, 1902.
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