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
Another change is the removal of the organs from the choirscreens,
originally located at the line of choir and transepts. They have been
removed in a majority of cases to the side of the choir, and much to
the improvement of the edifice. All cathedrals that we visited have
been restored more or less as described, and a majority of them are
finished. When a restoration of stonework has been made of any especial
part, as new door-work or a window, the work has been done in the style
of the period. Of course all changes since the last period of Gothic
architecture--the perpendicular--have been made in that style; so that
at times we find in one structure all the styles, from the Norman down
through the whole four. This method of operation must receive general,
if not universal sanction, since we find it invariably pursued.
On cathedrals generally are chimes of bells, on which the quarter and
half hours are struck by a few notes; and in Worcester Cathedral is,
also, a large barrel, of music-box construction, by which at especial
times in the day, as at 9 A. M., 12 M., 3 and 6 P. M., an entire tune
is played on the bells. For every day of the month there is a new tune,
a list of the music being at the door. On the day of our visit was
played "The Harp that once through Tara's Halls."
It would be an impossibility to describe in detail these great works
of art, the cathedrals of England. Little more can be done than name
things of especial interest. So far as the interior of Worcester
Cathedral is concerned, it is very inviting, and has interesting
monuments. The impression is not quite what one would imagine as he
thinks of an edifice over four hundred feet long, for sight never
conveys an idea of its actual length; but the impression is that
you are looking at a colossal church--one larger than you have ever
before seen. You admire the lofty tower, think it of elegant design,
proportions, and finish, that it looks new,--as it really is,--but get
no impressions of the great age of the building.
From the bridge, looking back to the left, you see an elegant
picture--the river low down, a terraced walk at its side, the land
surface some ten or fifteen feet above. An eighth of a mile or so
distant, half embowered in fine trees, is the cathedral. The upper
parts loom high above the branches, and the tower rises still higher.
The rear end of the cathedral choir, with its great east window,
projects beyond the grove, and is in full view from our point of
observation. From this place the city has a rural rather than a
commercial or manufacturing appearance. Let one stand on the bridge
and view this scene, and listen to the sweet notes of the bells.
The mellow and refined sound--we had almost said the intellectual
demonstration--of the cathedral bells, as by an intuition of its own,
institutes a comparison between this day of civilization and that of
the rude savage, and then if ever, one sees and knows that the world
moves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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