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 comparatively recent construction of St. Paul's deprives it of such
ancient monuments as may be found at the Abbey, and in other English
cathedrals. Those here are of white marble; and, although some of
them are nearly a century old, they yet have a newness of design akin
to statuary. One to the memory of Lord Nelson is the most costly and
attractive. It is in one of the alcoves, or small chapels, at the west
end, and the entire room, some twenty feet square, is devoted to it. It
is elaborate and highly decorated. There is another of some eminence
at the left side of the choir. It is a life-size statue of Dr. Samuel
Johnson, the great lexicographer. He is buried at the Abbey; but one so
poor as to live in the obscurity of a garret, at length became so great
as to win the second monument in this important church.
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."
The monuments of this church are of consequence as regards their
elegance of design. In no other English cathedral is there so large a
percentage of works of this kind. Impediments to the introduction of
monuments were offered; and it was not till 1791 that the opposition
was overcome, when application was made to erect a stone to the memory
of John Howard, the philanthropist, who died at Kherson, Russia, Jan.
26, 1790. The door thus being opened, under the supervision of the
Royal Academy many others have been erected, among which those of men
of military fame prevail. The first monument was set up in 1795. In
the south aisle, against the wall, is a full-size statue of Bishop
Reginald Heber. He is dressed in canonical robes, his right hand on
his breast, his left resting on a Bible standing endwise. He died at
Trichinopoly, India, April 3, 1826, at the age of 42, and is celebrated
as being the author of the well-known hymn beginning, "From Greenland's
icy mountains." The cathedral has a fine basement, hardly inferior
in interest to the great room of the cathedral above it, and always
visited by the tourist. Here, as at the Whispering Gallery, the fee
of a shilling is charged. The room is fifteen feet high, and is clean
and airy. The floor is paved with stone slabs, and a large number of
windows thoroughly light it. Innumerable columns of stone, for the
support of the arching overhead, and floor resting upon it, give the
room a forest-like appearance; though by no means depriving it also of
the look of a vast chapel, for at the proper place there is an altar
and its appurtenances. In this vicinity are a few effigies and tablets
from the first cathedral. Forming an architectural museum, are a lot of
relics that were found in the ground at the building of this cathedral,
and so are of Roman origin, or were used as parts of the old cathedral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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