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Show Cleaners Working in Westminster Abbey Unearth Dwelling Place of Anchorite i i Cleaners working in Westminster abbey recently discovered the site of the cell where the abbey's anchorite, anchor-ite, or holy man, kept lonely vigil centuries ago. It was in this cell, tradition says, that wild young Henry Hen-ry V spent a repentant night when his father, the fourth King Henry, died in the Jerusalem chamber of the abbey. The discovery was disclosed by Lawrence Tanner, keeper of the muniments of the abbey. He said the find was made during cleaning operations on a monument in St. Benedict's chapel to Dr. Gabriel Goodman, a former dean of Westminster, West-minster, who died in 1601. The monument mon-ument shows the dean kneeling al a praying desk. "Behind the praying desk was found in the stonework a little window win-dow so placed that anyone looking through would see the altar of the chapel," Tanner said. Just to the side of monument is a door, now-blocked, which had. as it had seemed to us for years, no obvious purpose. "Taking this door in conjunction with the newly discovered window and bearing in mind other features, we concluded that the door led to a little room outside abutting or! the abbey and therein must have dwelt .the abbey hermit or recluse. "Through that door must 'have passed .Henry V on the night of his father's death,- when the young king spent the night with the abbey recluse re-cluse and vowed to lead a new life." Tanner explained that the hermit usually was an elderly monk regarded regard-ed as no longer fit for active work and given the job of anchorite as a sort of retirement. |