[22] "Through England On a Side-Saddle in the time of William and Mary, being the Diary of Celia Fiennes." Published 1888. Quoted in "Fenland Notes and Queries," vol. i., pp. 291-293. [23] Page 214. [24] Page 17. [25] Page 334. [26] Date so given in "Handbook," 20th ed. [27] Gibbons' "Ely Episcopal Records," p. 112. [28] "Notes on the Cambridgeshire Churches," p. 4. [29] "Ecclesiologist," xxvii., p. 71. [30] "Ecclesiologist," xxi., p. 26. [31] "Handbook," 20th ed., App. II. [Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE WEST.] [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE GALILEE.] CHAPTER II. THE CATHEDRAL: EXTERIOR. Few persons would dispute the statement that for external grandeur of effect the cathedral at Ely is surpassed only, if at all, in England by Durham and Lincoln. With the natural advantages of position enjoyed by those cathedrals Ely cannot compete. In both these cases, also, there are grand mediaeval buildings of great size near at hand, that group well with the cathedrals and materially improve the effect. But, compared with the adjacent country, Ely does stand on an eminence, and consequently can be seen from a great distance in all directions. At Durham the distant view is limited by the hilly nature of the district; Lincoln, except on the north side, can probably be seen more than thirty miles off, from the ground.[1] Ely can be seen quite well from the tower of Peterborough--about thirty-five miles as the crow flies. Ely is nearly, but not quite, the highest spot in the Fenland. One place in Ely is 109 feet above mean sea-level. The highest elevation in the Fenland is near Haddenham, some five miles to the south-west of Ely, where a few bench-marks give 121 and 122 feet above sea-level. It is not only its magnificence that makes the view of Ely Cathedral so remarkable, there is also the feeling that it has so many striking features, to which we can find nothing to compare. "The first glimpse of Ely overwhelms us, not only by its stateliness and variety of its outline, but by its utter strangeness, its unlikeness to anything else." So says Professor Freeman[2] and again: "Ely, ... with its vast single western tower, with its central octagon unlike anything else in the whole world, has an outline altogether peculiar to itself."