A Topographical and Statistical description of the County of Middlesex ,etc (1810) by George Alexander Cooke
To the west of the Old Palace Yard, and nearly
opposite the House of Commons stands the conventual
church of St. Peter, commonly known by the
name of Westminster Abbey; this is one of the noblest
specimens of Gothic architecture which our
island can boast, not excepting even the far-famed
chapel of King's College, Cambridge, nor the venerable
church of St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol.
The church was founded, we are told, about 610 by
Sebert, king of the East Saxons, upon the ruins of a
temple of Apollo, destroyed, according to tradition,
by an earthquake. This new church was dedicated
to St. Peter, who was so pleased, they tell us, with
the performance, that, attended with an host of celestial
choristers, he descended in person to save
Militus, the bishop, the trouble of consecration.
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