A very obvious part of the charm of Exeter Cathedral lies in the fact that
it has to be sought for. It is so well and dexterously concealed from
view, as one passes along High Street, that one might be some days in town
without so much as suspecting that one of the finest cathedrals in England
was a near neighbor. It was almost by chance, I remember, that as we
turned into a long, quaint alley-way, filled up with little, low shops, we
caught a glimpse of a green plot of grass and some trees in the distance.
Our guiding instinct divined these to be the cathedral close....
To analyze the beauties of Exeter is only to add another note to one's joy
in them, their quality and rarity being of such an order as to warrant
one's cooler admiration. The front is as unique in design as it is
architecturally beautiful. There is that rarest of features in English
cathedrals--an elaborately sculptured screen, thoroughly honest in
construction. In originality of conception this front is perhaps
unrivalled, at least on English soil; there are three receding stories, so
admirably proportioned as to produce a beautiful effect in perspective.
The glory of the great west window is further enhanced by the graduated
arcades which have the appearance of receding behind it. Above the west
window rises a second and smaller triangular window in the gabled roof.
Thus the triangular motif is sustained throughout, from the three low
doorways in the screen up to the far-distant roof. This complete and
harmonious front is nobly enriched by the splendid note of contrast in the
two transeptal Norman towers, whose massive structural elegance and
elaborateness of detail lend an extraordinary breadth and solidity to the
edifice.
The grandeur which distinguishes the exterior is only a fitting
preparation for the solemnity and splendor of the interior. Passing
beneath the thickly massed sculptures of the low portals, the effect of
the vastness of the nave is striking in its immensity. Curiously enough,
in this instance, this effect of immensity is not due to an unbroken
stretch of nave-aisles or to a lengthy procession of pier-arches, but to
the magnificent sweep of the unencumbered vaulting in the roof. An organ
screen intercepts the line of vision at the entrance to the choir. This,
however, is the sole obstruction which the eye encounters. Above, the
great roof, with its unbroken 300 feet of interlacing lines, rises like
some mighty forest, its airy loftiness giving to the entire interior a
certain open-air atmosphere of breadth and vastness....
What most deeply concerned us was the desire to secure an uninterrupted
session of contemplative enjoyment. We had lost our hearts to the beauty
of the cathedral, and cared little or nothing for a clever dissecting of
its parts. We came again and again; and it was the glory of the cathedral
as a whole--its expressive, noble character, its breadth and grandeur, the
poetry of its dusky aisles, and the play of the rich shadows about its
massive columns--that charmed and enchained us. It was one of the few
English cathedrals, we said to each other, that possess the Old-World
continental charm, the charm of perpetual entertainment, and whose beauty
has just the right quality of richness and completeness to evoke an
intense and personal sympathy; for in all the greatest triumphs of art
there is something supremely human.
LICHFIELD [Footnote: From "Our Old Home." Published by Houghton,
Mifflin Co.]