It will be admitted that, tho in general effect there is nothing in the
same style of architecture which exceeds the exterior of St. Paul's, it
has not a single detail deserving of attention, except the Phenix over the
south portico, which was executed by Cibber, and commemorates the curious
fact narrated in the "Parentalia," that the very first stone which Sir
Christopher Wren directed a mason to bring from the rubbish of the old
church to serve as a mark for the center of the dome in his plans was
inscribed with the single word _Resurgam_--I shall rise again. The other
ornaments and statues are chiefly by Bird, a most inferior sculptor. Those
who find greater faults must, however, remember that St. Paul's, as it now
stands, is not according to the first design of Wren, the rejection of
which cost him bitter tears. Even in his after work he met with so many
rubs and ruffles, and was so insufficiently paid, that the Duchess of
Marlborough, said, in allusion to his scaffold labors, "He is dragged up
and down in a basket two or three times in a week for an insignificant
£200 a year."...
The interior of St. Paul's is not without a grandeur of its own, but in
detail it is bare, cold, and uninteresting, tho Wren intended to have
lined the dome with mosaics, and to have placed a grand baldacchino in the
choir. Tho a comparison with St. Peter's inevitably forces itself upon
those who are familiar with the great Roman basilica, there can scarcely
be a greater contrast than between the two buildings. There, all is
blazing with precious marbles; here, there is no color except from the
poor glass of the eastern windows, or where a tattered banner waves above
a hero's monument. In the blue depths of the misty dome the London fog
loves to linger, and hides the remains of some feeble frescoes by
Thornhill, Hogarth's father-in-law. In St. Paul's, as in St. Peter's, the
statues on the monuments destroy the natural proportion of the arches by
their monstrous size, but they have seldom any beauty or grace to excuse
them. The week-day services are thinly attended, and, from the nave, it
seems as if the knot of worshipers near the choir were lost in the
immensity, and the peals of the organ and the voices of the choristers
were vibrating through an arcaded solitude....
The most interesting portion of the church is the Crypt, where, at the
eastern extremity, are gathered nearly all the remains of the tombs which
were saved from the old St. Paul's. Here repose the head and half the body
of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1579), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the reign
of Elizabeth, and father of Francis, Lord Bacon. Other fragments represent
William Cokain, 1626; William Hewit, 1597; and John Wolley and his wife,
1595. There are tablets to "Sir Simon Baskerville the rich," physician to
James I. and Charles I., 1641; and to Brian, Bishop of Chester, 1661. The
tomb of John Martin, bookseller, and his wife, 1680, was probably the
first monument erected in the crypt of new St. Paul's....
In the Crypt, not far from the old St. Paul's tombs, the revered Dean
Milman, the great historian of the church (best known, perhaps, by his
"History of the Jews," his "History of Latin Christianity," and his
contributions to "Heber's Hymns"), is now buried under a simple tomb
ornamented with a raised cross. In a recess on the south is the slab of
Sir Christopher Wren, and near him, in other chapels, Robert Mylne, the
architect of old Blackfriars Bridge, and John Rennie, the architect of
Waterloo Bridge. Beneath the pavement lies Sir Joshua Reynolds (1742), who
had an almost royal funeral in St. Paul's, dukes and marquises contending
for the honor of being his pallbearers. Around him are buried his
disciples and followers--Lawrence (1830), Barry (1806), Opie (1807), West
(1820), Fuseli (1825); but the most remarkable grave is that of William
Maillord Turner, whose dying request was that he might be buried as near
as possible to Sir Joshua.
Where the heavy pillars and arches gather thick beneath the dome, in spite
of his memorable words at the battle of the Nile--"Victory or Westminster
Abbey"--is the grave of Lord Nelson. Followed to the grave by the seven
sons of his sovereign, he was buried here in 1806, when Dean Milman, who
was present, "heard, or seemed to hear, the low wail of the sailors who
encircled the remains of their admiral." They tore to pieces the largest
of the flags of the "Victory," which waved above his grave; the rest were
buried with his coffin.
The sarcophagus of Nelson was designed and executed for Cardinal Wolsey by
the famous Torregiano, and was intended to contain the body of Henry VIII.
in the tomb-house at Windsor. It encloses the coffin made from the mast of
the ship "L'Orient," which was presented to Nelson after the battle of the
Nile by Ben Hallowell, captain of the "Swiftsure," that, when he was tired
of life, he might "be buried in one of his own trophies." On either side
of Nelson repose the minor heroes of Trafalgar, Collingwood (1810) and
Lord Northesk; Picton also lies near him, but outside the surrounding
arches.
A second huge sarcophagus of porphyry resting on lions is the tomb where
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, was laid in 1852, in the presence of
15,000 spectators, Dean Milman, who had been present at Nelson's funeral,
then reading the services. Beyond the tomb of Nelson, in a ghastly
ghost-befitting chamber hung with the velvet which surrounded his lying in
state at Chelsea, and on which, by the flickering torchlight, we see
emblazoned the many Orders presented to him by foreign sovereigns, is the
funeral car of Wellington, modeled and constructed in six weeks, at an
expense of £13,000, from guns taken in his campaigns.
In the southwest pier of the dome a staircase ascends by 616 steps to the
highest point of the cathedral. No feeble person should attempt the
fatigue, and, except to architects, the undertaking is scarcely worth
while. An easy ascent leads to the immense passages of the triforium, in
which, opening from the gallery above the south aisle, is the Library,
founded by Bishop Compton, who crowned William and Mary, Archbishop Seeker
refusing to do so. It contains the bishop's portrait and some carving by
Gibbons.
At the corner of the gallery, on the left, a very narrow stair leads to
the Clock, of enormous size, with a pendulum 16 feet long, constructed by
Langley Bradley in 1708. Ever since, the oaken seats behind it have been
occupied by a changing crowd, waiting with anxious curiosity to see the
hammer strike its bell, and tremulously hoping to tremble at the
vibration.
Returning, another long ascent leads to the Whispering Gallery, below the
windows of the cupola, where visitors are requested to sit down upon a
matted seat that they may be shown how a low whisper uttered against the
wall can be distinctly heard from the other side of the dome. Hence we
reach the Stone Gallery, outside the base of the dome, whence we may
ascend to the Golden Gallery at its summit. This last ascent is
interesting, as being between the outer and inner domes, and showing how
completely different in construction one is from the other. The view from
the gallery is vast, but generally, beyond a certain distance, it is
shrouded in smoke. Sometimes, one stands aloft in a clear atmosphere,
while beneath the fog rolls like a sea, through which the steeples and
towers are just visible "like the masts of stranded vessels." Hence one
may study the anatomy of the fifty-four towers which Wren was obliged to
build after the Fire in a space of time which would only have properly
sufficed for the construction of four. The same characteristics, more and
more painfully diluted, but always slightly varied, occur in each. Bow
Church, St. Magnus, St. Bride, and St. Vedast are the best.
The Great Bell of St. Paul's (of 1716), which hangs in the south tower,
bears the inscription, "Richard Phelps made me, 1716." It only tolls on
the deaths and funerals of the royal family, of Bishops of London, Deans
of St. Paul's, and Lord Mayors who die in their mayoralty.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE CRYSTAL PALACE [Footnote: From "Notes on
England." By arrangement with the publishers, Henry Holt & Co.]