Closely connected with the abbey, and occupying part of the old monastic buildings within the abbey precincts, is the famous public school. Founded probably as early as the monastery itself, the school was not established upon anything like its present basis until Queen Elizabeth's reign, when forty king's or queen's scholars were placed upon the foundation.
The antiquary and lover of historic sites should not consider his tour of Westminster and its precincts complete without at least a peep into the so-called Dean's Yard, with its stately modern mansions built in the medieval style, after designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, and its Gothic archway.
The old gate-house prison, where Sir Walter Raleigh awaited his summons to execution, the Sanctuary itself, the Almonry, where Caxton set up his first printing-press, so long the chief attractions of the place, are gone, but their memories still live..