The exterior of the church is much discoloured and weathered, suggesting
that in places an excess of moisture reaches the walls. Inside, too,
there is an atmosphere of neglect, perhaps caused by the need of funds
for the proper maintenance of the beautiful building. No great cost
would be entailed, however, in keeping the churchyard tidy; and the old
shoes, the empty pots, and other litter near the east end, might be
removed at a trifling expense. Great Driffield keeps its churchyard as a
well-ordered garden, Hedon with less care than is devoted to its green.
Surely the ‘Mair and Bailives,’ armed with the mace they believe to be
the most ancient in the country, would do well to go in procession to
the churchyard, and, having made a careful examination of the litter and
counted the tin cans and old shoes, make an urgent report to the
incumbent.
The nave of the church is Decorated, and has beautiful windows of that
period. The transept is Early English, and so also is the chancel, with
a fine Perpendicular east window filled with glass of the same subtle
colours we saw at Patrington.
In Preston Church, a mile to the north, are the richly carved fragments
of an alabaster Easter sepulchre, or possibly a reredos, found during
the restoration in 1880.
In approaching nearer to Hull, we soon find ourselves in the outer zone
of its penumbra of smoke, with fields on each side of the road waiting
for works and tall shafts, which will spread the unpleasant gloom of the
city still further into the smiling country. The sun becomes
copper-coloured, and the pure, transparent light natural to Holderness
loses its vigour. Tall and slender chimneys emitting lazy coils of
blackness stand in pairs or in groups, with others beyond, indistinct
behind a veil of steam and smoke, and at their feet grovels a confusion
of buildings sending forth jets and mushrooms of steam at a thousand
points. Hemmed in by this industrial belt and compact masses of cellular
brickwork, where labour skilled and unskilled sleeps and rears its
offspring, is the nucleus of the Royal borough of Kingston-upon-Hull,
founded by Edward I. at the close of the thirteenth century.
It would scarcely have been possible that any survivals of the
Edwardian port could have been retained in the astonishing commercial
development the city has witnessed, particularly in the last century;
and Hull, despite its interesting history, lays no claim to even the
smallest suggestion of picturesqueness. The renaissance of English
architecture is beginning to make itself felt in the chief streets,
where some good buildings are taking the places of ugly fronts; and
there are one or two more ambitious schemes of improvement bringing
dignity into the city; but that, with the exception of two churches, is
practically all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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