The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
History
The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.
Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
The attendant in the Whispering Gallery tells us to put our ears
against the side wall, and he would whisper to us and exhibit this
accidental wonder. He, being opposite, against the wall, says in a
whisper: "This Cathedral was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and
was finished in the year 1710. This dome is, &c., &c." All was as
distinctly heard as if we were by his side. We had heard for ourselves
the wonder. We had experienced all that any one can experience, so
far as the material work is concerned. When we put our name on the
visitors' book we felt that we did more than that, for we joined the
company of those who for two and a half centuries have been doing as we
did. As long as mind endures, as often as the hand of thought reaches
out, it must gather whether it will or not.
It is not far from 6 P. M. of this Sunday. Service is being
held, and the great nave is half filled. The audience are trying to
hear, and a part of them are sincerely worshipping; the remainder,
like ourselves, are "seeing the cathedral." The sounds were confused
and the echo troublesome, though not so much so as at other places. We
were favorably impressed with the great length of the cathedral, and
with its general look of vastness,--not awe-stricken, but filled with
delight at the privilege we were enjoying in being in great St. Paul's.
The large piers and arches, and the arched ceiling (tunnel-like, but
here and there pierced with small and too flat domes), all appeared
heavy and substantial,--built to last. Elegant colored-glass windows
are about the apse, or chancel end, but the others are of small square
lights of clear glass. A common square black and white marble tiled
floor; monuments and tablets here and there against the columns and
walls; an elegant oak organ-case, in two parts, on the side walls of
the choir, and just back of the high, iron screen-work that separates
the choir from the nave; the rich oaken stalls,--these make up the
interior of St. Paul's. The great central dome has dim paintings by Sir
James Thornhill, done at the time the cathedral was built. Seen, as the
inside of the great dome is, through smoke, which the rays of light
from the large windows above penetrate and make visible (this effect
is ever present during the light), the great dome awakens a feeling of
solemnity. We felt something of what we were contemplating.
The shades of night were falling; the assembly had broken up, and here
and there were solitary visitors, moving about weird-like in the dim
light as if loth to leave. We at length passed out, and returned to our
lodgings at West End.
What ground has been gone over between the hours of 4 and 8 P.
M. Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey and Bridge, Parliament Houses, the
almost classic river, a look at St. Paul's,--and we are at home and
resting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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