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
It has but a small number of noted monuments, but among them are some
of unusual interest. One, always attracting attention, is of Robert,
Duke of Normandy. It is a recumbent effigy of bog-oak, covered with
wire network. Being a Crusader, the legs are crossed, as is the
customary representation. Robert was imprisoned by his brother Henry,
his eyes were put out, and for twenty-eight years he continued in this
miserable condition till death came to his relief. Another monument
is to the memory of Edward II., who was murdered Sept. 21, 1327.
Another commemorates Bishop Warburton, who was made bishop of the
diocese in 1759, and died here in 1779. Near the entrance is a monument
to Dr. Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, or inoculation,
as a preventive of smallpox. He died at Berkley, in the county of
Gloucestershire, and was buried in this cathedral in 1823, at the age
of seventy-five.
In this city, in 1735, was born Robert Raikes, who in 1781 hired rooms
for Sunday-schools, and employed women at a shilling a day to teach
poor children, whom he found in the streets, the rudiments of common
education. The school was held from 10 A. M. to 12 M. An hour's recess
was followed by a lesson in reading, and then they went to church.
After service the catechism was repeated till 5 P. M., "when they were
charged to go home at once, and quietly." This was the origin of our
present system of Sunday-schools, that of Mr. Raikes being the first
of which we have any account. Here also, on the 16th of December,
1714, was born the celebrated preacher, George Whitefield, who died
at Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 30, 1770, and whose remains are entombed
under the pulpit of the Old South (Presbyterian) Church of that place.
One mural tablet was of especial interest to us,--a white marble slab,
high up on one of the transept walls, thought to be in memory of a
relative of the founder of the chimes on Christ Church at the North End
of Boston. It reads as follows:--
ABRAHAM RUDHALL BELL FOUNDER
FAM'D FOR HIS GREAT SKILL
BELOV'D AND ESTEEM'D FOR HIS SIGNAL
GOOD NATURE AND INTEGRITY
DIED JAN'Y 25TH 1785-6 AGED 78.
One of the bells at our Christ Church bears this inscription: "Abel
Rudhall of Gloucester cast us all, Anno. 1744." As Abraham would have
been about forty-two years old at the time, perhaps he was the son of
this Abel.
The organ in the cathedral is one of great power and brilliancy of
tone. It was built by the celebrated Renatus Harris of London, who
built many of the large organs of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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