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"Victory or Westminster Abbey!" cried Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797. He knew that in the monumental heap of well-chiseled stone and marble lay the heroes of his nation. An Unknown Soldier from World War I lies beneath the Abbey's roof. In the rear of Henry VII's centuries-old chapel glows a brilliant, stained-glass window reflecting the Royal Air Force's stand during the Battle of Britain. But to the enduring honor of England, more than military pomp and glory is recognized. The Abbey is also a national grave for the composer Purcell, the scientists Newton, Darwin and Kelvin. In Poets' Corner lie a score more than Keats, Tennyson and Browning. There is even a modern Epstein bust of Blake.
On occasions when the Abbey is not crowded, it is a tranquil haven. At other times, it is an album of remembrance littered with memorabilia in stone, a storehouse of history. The historian Macaulay called the Abbey a "temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of a thousand years lie buried." It is Valhalla, Arlington Cemetery, the tombs on Red Square, a combination of Paris' Pantheon and the Montparnasse Cemetery. After nine centuries, it remains a silent place full of lost hope and renewed energy.