Rollo and Jennie went on running for a few minutes, as they ascended the
staircase, round and round; but their strength was soon spent by this
violent exertion, and they sat down on the stairs entirely exhausted.
And yet they had not come up very high. The whole height of this first
staircase, which the party were now ascending, was only about as much
as a house four stories high; whereas the whole height of the church, to
the very top, is equal to that of a house--if such a house there could
be--_forty_ stories high. So that thus far they had come not one tenth
part of the way to the top.
While Rollo and Jennie were sitting on the stairs, resting from their
fatigue, they began to hear, after a time, the voices of Mr. George and
Mrs. Holiday, ascending.
"Are we nearly at the top?" said Rollo.
"I don't know," said Mr. George. "Stay till you get rested, and then
follow on."
So saying, Mr. George and Mrs. Holiday passed by, ascending the stairs
very slowly, step by step, as they had begun.
Rollo and Jennie were not willing to be left behind; so they followed
immediately; and after a few more turns they found themselves, to their
great joy, at the top of the staircase. They came out in a large
garret-like looking room, which was over the south transept of the
church. You can see the end of the south transept in the engraving. It
is the part which you see projecting from the main body of the church on
the right, with a circular portico leading to it. There is a similar
circular portico, with circular steps outside, at the entrance to the
north transept, on the other side of the church, which, however, is not
shown in the engraving.
[Illustration: ST PAUL'S.]
The party passed under a great archway which led towards the centre of
the church, and presently they came to another long and garret-like
looking hall, or corridor, with great arches of masonry passing over it
from one side to the other at regular intervals along its whole length,
like the beams and rafters of wood in an ordinary garret. This great
vacant space was directly over one of the side aisles of the church.[D]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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