except in the collection of their more earnest passages from among
his interludes of graceful but dangerous qualification,--I trace, with
only such omission, the story he has told us of the foundation of that
Abbey, which, he tells you, was the Mother of London, and has ever
been the shrine and the throne of English faith and truth.

"The gradual formation of a monastic body, indicated in the charters
of Offa and Edgar, marks the spread of the Benedictine order
throughout England, under the influence of Dunstan. The 'terror' of
the spot, which had still been its chief characteristic in the charter
of the wild Offa, had, in the days of the more peaceful Edgar, given
way to a dubious 'renown.' Twelve monks is the number traditionally
said to have been established by Dunstan. A few acres further up the
river formed their chief property, and their monastic character was
sufficiently recognized to have given to the old locality of the
'terrible place' the name of the 'Western Monastery,' or 'Minster of
the West.'"

The Benedictines then--twelve Benedictine monks--thus begin the
building of existent Christian London. You know I told you the
Benedictines are the Doing people, as the disciples of St. Augustine
the Sentimental people. The Benedictines find no terror in their
own thoughts--face the terror of places--change it into beauty of
places,--make this terrible place, a Motherly Place--Mother of London.

This first Westminster, however, the Dean goes on to say, "seems to
have been overrun by the Danes," and it would have had no further
history but for the combination of circumstances which directed hither
the notice of Edward the Confessor.