WELLS--NORWICH--ELY.
We arrived at 6 o'clock. The ride from Peterboro', through Lynn, and
to Wells, was a pleasing one, for the land in the entire region was
different from any we had seen. There were but few elevations, and,
instead, meadows and fens abounded. Dikes and ditches were frequent.
Windmills, as in Holland, were common, and in many respects we were
riding over veritable Lynn Marshes, as we had done a thousand times, at
home.
At length, arriving here, we anticipated seeing the cathedral, but alas
for human endeavors and calculations! this was to be _the_ place of our
entire journey mistake. Wells proper, that of cathedral renown, was
hundreds of miles away. This is a little, east-side-of-England seaport
town of 3,760 inhabitants. Many of the houses are one-story, stone,
plastered, and whitewashed. We felt in one quarter very at-homeish,
for the street alongshore was much like one at Gloucester or Rockport,
or in Joppa at Newburyport, Mass. There was an intense odor of fish,
and the fishermen themselves were Joppa-fishermen-like, and not simply
sailors. Heavy clothing was theirs, and of a cut and style not like
Boston or Paris. Their boots were innocent of a waste of blacking,
_souwesters_ for hats, and Guernsey frocks. We didn't have very hard
work to be reconciled, and "making the best of it" wasn't enough in the
nature of a sacrifice to transform it into a virtue. We were seeing a
fine old English seaboard town, and now we have an unexpected source of
thought to draw from. We have it sure, and ever shall.
The mistaken detour was a blessing in disguise, a cloud with a
silver lining. Next A. M., after a fine night's rest in
that invigorating atmosphere, at 7 o'clock took train, and rode
along landscapes not much like the other before passed over, for we
were soon out into higher land, with some fields, and amid many fine
gardens, groves, and woods,--in fact, in a quite New-England-appearing
territory; and at 9 A. M., on this June 11, arrived at
NORWICH.
No doubt this time in the minds of either of us whether or not this
was _the_ Norwich, for in grand relief, off a quarter of a mile, was
the cathedral, with its centre tower and spire, 315 feet high, which
is one of the five spired-cathedrals of England. The city is well
situated on the River Wensum, and has a population of 80,390, and is
the capital of the county of Norfolk. It is a very ancient place,
for there are good evidences that it was founded A. D. 446,
or more than 1400 years ago. On the departure of the Romans, who
settled it, it was taken by the Saxons, and in 575 it had improved
and become the capital of Anglia. In 1002 it was attacked by a Danish
fleet under command of Sweyn their king, and was captured and burnt
to ashes. In 1328 the foundation of its permanent prosperity was laid
by Edward III., who made it the staple town of Suffolk and Norfolk;
and, conferring important privileges thereby, induced large numbers of
Flemings to settle in it. A larger number yet arrived during the reign
of Queen Elizabeth; and so great was the industry and ingenuity of
the people, that their manufactures soon became famed throughout the
world. The city has given birth to many distinguished men. Among these
may be named the following: Matthew Parker, a distinguished Archbishop
of Canterbury, and so, Primate of all England. He was the second
Protestant Bishop of Canterbury, and died at London, May 17, 1575. A
more extended notice of him will be given in the description of the
cathedral of Canterbury.
Next is Dr. Samuel Clark, born Oct. 11, 1675, and died May 17, 1729. He
graduated at Cambridge, and was of a very philosophical turn of mind.
Having mastered the system of Philosophy of Descartes and Newton in his
22d year, he published a work on physics, which became popular and a
text-book in the university. He next turned his attention to theology,
and became chaplain to Dr. More, Bishop of Norwich. In 1706 he
translated into English "Newton's Optics," which so pleased the great
mathematician that he presented him with £500, and Queen Anne made him
one of her chaplains and rector of St. James Westminster, and this
was when he was less than 31 years old. He was a very scholarly and
voluminous writer, and all his works are marked by erudition and are
on important themes. He was a philosopher, and a scientific thinker,
as well as an historical, or theological one; and on the death of Sir
Isaac Newton, he was offered the place of Master of the Mint, but
strongly attached to his profession as a Christian teacher, he declined
the office, as being unsuitable to his ecclesiastical character. His
death occurred at the age of fifty-three, and few have died more
worthily or universally lamented.
Here also was born, May 21, 1780, Elizabeth Fry, the celebrated
Quakeress and philanthropist, who was, in 1798, converted to pure
Quakerism through the instrumentality of William Savary, the American
Quaker, then on a visit to England. She died at Ramsgate, Oct. 12,
1845, greatly lamented the Christian World over.
Here also was born, Nov. 12, 1769, Mrs. Amelia Opie, the well known
poetess and prose writer, who died here Dec. 2, 1853.
And here was born, June 12, 1802, that remarkable writer, Harriet
Martineau; and, in 1805, her hardly less celebrated brother Rev. James
Martineau, the distinguished Unitarian divine; and thus we find the
list of notables increasing to a degree that demands a refrain of
enumeration even. The old city is hardly less celebrated as having been
the seat of very marked and interesting historical events.
In 1381 Bishop Spencer led an army, and successfully repulsed an attack
made on it by 80,000 insurgents, led by Sitester, a dyer, in the Wat
Tyler Rebellion. Muscular Christianity was at a premium, sure, in those
days, and a political sermon was then looked upon as a mild offence.
In 1531 Bilney and Lews and Ket were burned at the stake for their
religious opinions. In the reign of Elizabeth 4,000 Flemings fled from
the cruelties of the Duke of Alva, and established in this place the
manufacture of bombazines, which work is carried on to the present
day. In 1695 a mint was established here. In the years 1407-1483 was
built, of curiously arranged cobble, or round flintstones, the present
guildhall, with panels in the front, ornamented with armorial shields
of the time of Henry VIII. In one of the rooms is the sword of Admiral
Winthuysen, taken at the battle of St. Vincent, Feb. 14, 1797. In
Pottergate Street is the old Bridewell, built in 1380, of flintstone,
and once the home of Appleyard, the first mayor of Norwich.
A recital of interesting facts and description of relics could be
made which alone would require chapters of the length we are using.
The temptation is very great, when we are saying anything of these
grand old historic and antique centres, to enlarge, and give a greater
amount of those interesting old facts; but a moment's reflection
calls attention to the impropriety of making an encyclopædia, and we
forbear, and turn to the more modern ideas.
The manufactures of the place are at the present time, as they always
have been, very varied; and prominent among them is that of woollen
goods, which are of a great and ancient celebrity, for the Flemings
obtained long wool, spun in the village of Worsted, nine miles away,
and of this made that peculiar cloth. This kind of yarn thus took the
name of _worsted_, and is so known to this day. It is said that there
are 1400 looms working in this city and the neighborhood. The city
has a business-like appearance, and a commanding look in its main
thoroughfares. It is well built of brick and stone, and everywhere, at
intervals, there are the evidences of age, in the old stone churches,
of which there are more than forty in the city,--some of them very
venerable, and built of split cobble-flintstone, and many of them of
great antiquity.
The city has a noble feudal relic in the shape of a castle founded by
Uffa in 575. It was extended and improved by Anna in 642, and again
in 872 by Alfred the Great, or more than 1,000 years ago; and now
still stands, grand and imposing, at the centre of the city, on a
quite lofty eminence with precipitous sides, and is surrounded by its
massive wall and donjon tower, but has been in modern times altered on
the interior, to fit it for its present use as a jail. Another part
is remodelled for use as the shire hall. The bishop's palace and the
deanery are imposing structures, old and interesting, and approached,
as the cathedral itself is, through what is called the Eppingham Gate,
a remarkable structure consisting of a lofty pointed arch, flanked with
semi-octagonal buttresses, and enriched with columns, mouldings, and 38
male and female statues in canopied niches. The market-place is large,
and ranks as one of the finest in the world. The city was formerly
surrounded by walls; fragments of them still remain, but most have been
removed and the material used for more useful purposes. It was provided
with numerous watch-towers, and was entered by 12 gates.
Owing to the quantity of ground used, just out of the centre of the
city, for gardens and orchards, as the place is approached by rail it
presents a very rural appearance; and being built mostly on a hillside,
and quite steep in parts, it strongly resembles its namesake in our
Connecticut, and it covers a much larger space, or territory, than any
other English place of a like population. Not a few of the streets
are narrow and winding, and many of the houses that line such are
antique with overhanging stories, and presenting long rows of gables;
they are, however, generally of brick, and more interesting for their
antiquity than for any merits of architecture.
Great improvements have been made in the suburbs, and even in the
city proper; new streets have been opened, old ones widened, and many
modern and tasteful buildings erected. Hospitals and charity schools
and institutions abound. The literary and scientific institutions
have a library of 18,000 volumes, and the mechanics' and young men's
institutes have 11,000. There are numerous public parks or gardens,
bowling-greens, and great facilities for the amusement and pleasure of
its inhabitants.
A grand and venerable old place is this of Norwich,--full of
inducements for a visit, or even a permanent stay. It should have been
named that the suburbans, and those living on the outskirts, give much
attention to farming, and that Norwich is in some respects like our
Brighton, for it has weekly market-days for the sale of cattle, and has
the largest market in the kingdom, with the single exception of those
near London. The stores, many in number, and a large portion of them of
high grade, present for sale every conceivable article, and argue of a
high civilization.
"The cathedral,--what of that?" says the reader. Well, it is by no
means forgotten, and we next tell of that. It is situated on low and
level land, and is from a distance looked down upon, or over to, rather
than up to, as is the case at Durham, Lincoln, and in fact in many
other places. It is built of a dark-gray sandstone, and has a rather
sombre look, and is located in the midst of grounds, about in which are
walls and ruins of the old monastery, and the original garden walls
yet remain; so that while the cathedral is not out among buildings of
ordinary character, but has ample grounds and shrubbery around it, yet
it has no grand close, or park, as at Salisbury, Hereford, and many
others; but all is complete within these precincts, and charming in the
extreme. A charming quiet pervades these ancient-appearing and large
premises, and all is befitting the venerable structure.
Like all cathedrals, this boasts of a good antiquity. The See was
removed from Thetford to Norwich in 1096. The first establishment
consisted of sixty monks; they took possession of the premises in
1106, and Bishop Herbert laid the cathedral foundation in 1115. The
work advanced, so that on Advent Sunday, 1278,--or 163 years after the
laying of the corner-stone,--it was consecrated by Bishop Middleton,
in presence of King Edward I. and Queen Eleanor. In 1272 the tower was
badly injured by lightning; and this was but the precursor of a greater
evil, for on the 18th of September of that year a riot occurred among
the populace, and they turned their attention to the edifice. Most of
the court buildings were destroyed, the cathedral itself much injured,
several of the sub-deacons and lay-servants killed in the cloisters,
the treasury ransacked, and all the monks but two driven away. In 1289
Bishop Walpole began a spire of wood, covered with lead, completed
in 1295, which remained some years, when it was blown down, and much
injury was done to the roofs. Bishop Percy erected the present stone
spire in the years 1364-1369, so that as we now see it, it is 536 years
old.
The building is 416 feet long, transepts, 185 feet wide; and the
tower, which is 45½ feet square, is 140 feet high, with a stone spire,
169½ feet above this, or an aggregate 309½, exclusive of iron-work,
above it. The cloisters are 150 feet square, and the open close about
them is one of the finest in England. The interior is very solid in
appearance, yet as well decorated as any in the kingdom. Indescribable
is the solemnity of grand effect. How complete all is; and how of
eternity itself do the great Norman columns speak! Had we not already
employed so much eulogy in praise of other cathedrals, we now could
use adjectives to advantage; but language has never yet adequately
described a cathedral's interior. There is more to the thing than
matters of curiosity and a tame entertainment. We first are interested,
next admire; soon a feeling of awe and solemnity is inspired, and the
strong sensations tone down, and one feels to be in the presence of men
of other generations. Bishops of distinguished renown have here held
sway more than half a thousand years ago. Here have kings and queens
worshipped. These arches through the centuries have echoed back a
million songs and psalms and prayers; about, amid this lofty vaulting,
have the odors and smoke of Roman Catholic incense wandered on; and
here at the foot of these ponderous columns, and at these shrines,
have thousands, yea millions, of pious devotees tried to do honor to
the King of kings and the Lord of lords; and here also by-and-by, in
aid of reformation, was ruthless work done, and images of saints and
grand sculptures, made by monks and pious ones, were hurled from their
quiet resting-places, to be broken and to be cast out, after centuries
of service,--to be as common things, ground to powder and trodden
under foot of men. The good Scripture statement is that there is joy
among the redeemed over repenting mortals. If joy, then knowledge and
observation of what mortals do. Is it too much to think that, with
extended vision and enlightened conditions, seeing truth clearly,
and rid of its dress and habiliments of superstition and enslaving
penance and wordy ritual, that even the seeming desecration, speaking
of advancing conditions and better ones for after worshippers,--that
listening to this, they too rejoiced in the work, and that always after
they have been interested here at these great shrines, and are present
and communing? Is there not now, as of old, a great cloud of witnesses?
When one walks through the vast cathedral nave, and the sound of his
feet makes echoes that pass from one to another of their lofty arches,
is it too much to think that these are not all the sounds awakened or
elements set in motion? "Things are not what they seem," for the poet
has well said:--
As the temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal.
This place so sacred, and now in grand repose, has been desecrated to
an incredible degree. The world's people and the monks have at times
come to blows. In recounting the desecrations which took place during
one of the civil wars, Sir Thomas Browne says, that "more than one
hundred monumental brasses were taken from the mural slabs in this
cathedral, and were carried away and destroyed." Bishop Hall says:--
The rebel musketeers committed abominable excesses in this cathedral
church, which they converted into an ale-house. They sallied out
habited in the surplices and vestments, sounding on the organ pipes,
and grossly parodying the litany, and burned the service-books, six
copies, and records in the market-place.
No cathedral makes a greater show of monuments, in wider variety of
design, or commemorative of more influential and distinguished men; and
first may be named the elegant memorial window at the west end of the
nave, to the memory of Bishop Edward Stanley, who was father of the
celebrated and now worthily lamented Dean of Westminster at London.
The bishop was born in 1779, and died at Norwich in 1849, having
been made bishop of this cathedral in 1837. In the presbytery is a
table-tomb to the memory of Sir W. Boleyn, who died in 1505. He was the
great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth.
Near by is a wall tablet commemorating Bishop George Horne, who died
Jan. 17, 1792. He was distinguished as a preacher, and became President
of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1768, Chaplain to the King in 1771,
Dean of Canterbury in 1781, and Bishop of Norwich, 1790. He was a very
voluminous writer; his chief work is his "Commentary on the Psalms,"
on which he labored for twenty years, and published it in 1776. As one
lingers among these remains he is forcibly struck with the antiquity
of the monuments, and finds himself counting their age by hundreds
of years; and among them are the following bishops with the year of
their death. They will be given in the order in which they are met
with, not regarding priority of dates: Bishop Nix, 1536; Parkhurst,
1575; Dean Gardner, 1589; Bishop Herbert, 1682; Goldwell, 1499;
Wakering, 1425; Overell, 1619; Bathurst, 1837; Prior N. de Brampton,
1268; Prior Bonoun, 1480; Reynolds, 1676; R. Pulvertoft, 1494; and so
might the list be continued. Here are bishops, deans, curates, priors,
sir-knights-templars, members of parliament; and distinguished women
also, for not unfrequently appears the title of Dame, as Dame Calthorp,
who died in 1582. As we think of these for whom monumental stones have
been raised, and the hundreds in the old grounds, who are "unknelled,
uncoffined, and unknown;" of monk, nun, abbot, and abbess; Catholic and
Protestant; of them of ancient dispensation, as well as of them of the
new; the whole a great company, more in the aggregate than all they who
in the city entire are yet in the flesh,--as we loiter here and think
of these things, we see the force of the remark, "One generation cometh
and another goeth, but the earth abideth forever." We have said, after
all, comparatively nothing concerning this place of so much interest
and renown, but time with us moves as it did with those who a thousand
years ago labored and died here. The great bell in the tower solemnly
counts off the hour of 3 o'clock, and we wend our way from these sacred
precincts, and drop the curtain, but not without the promise that
whenever again at London, we will come over to Norwich; and now at 3.30
of the same Tuesday, we take cars for the next cathedral town, which is
famous old
ELY.
We are at the seat of another of the famed cathedrals, having arrived
in just an hour's ride from Norwich; so on this remarkably fine day
as it is proving to be,--at home in Boston, America, we should
call it a first-class middle-of-May one,--valises deposited at the
railroad station, our stay not to be long, we are soon walking about
the city. This is a small rural place, situated on the River Ouse,
and with a population of 8,000. It is exceedingly rural in aspect,
and has but little look of business or manufactures. Half embowered
with trees, the octagonal tower of the cathedral is looming up in the
distance, a half-mile away. The place has one principal street, and
but few others of more than ordinary importance, and while clean to
a fault, it has many old buildings, and little that is new; and, as
before intimated, gardens and lawns are common, and the entire place
has a charmingly rural character. The churches of St. Mary and of
Holy Trinity are remarkable for their age and an ancient splendor.
There was a convent founded here about 673, by Etheldreda, wife of
Egfrid, King of Northumberland, and she was its first abbess. It was
destroyed by the Danes in 870, and one hundred years later was rebuilt
by Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, who placed in it monks instead of
nuns. The city is on an island, and is said to have received its name
from the great quantity of eels that used to be taken here. It has some
manufactures of earthen-ware, and tobacco-pipes, and there are also
flax and hemp-seed oil-mills, and lime-kilns; but the principal source
of income for the laboring people is agriculture, and it has very
extensive gardens for the cultivation of market vegetables, the produce
of which is mainly sent to Cambridge, sixteen miles away, for use at
the colleges.
The monastery and former abbey being established here, made it at an
early day one of the celebrated religious centres of England; and,
as often the case, the church of the institution was important, and
in time became a cathedral. The See was established in 1107. In 1066
Thurston was abbot, and he defended the Isle of Ely seven years against
William the Conqueror. In 1081 Simeon, a prior of Winchester, was
abbot, and laid the foundation of the present cathedral.
In 1107, as before stated, the See was established, and Hervey, who
had been Bishop of Bangor,--and, it is said for good reasons, had been
driven away,--was elected Abbot of Ely; that is, he was head of the
monastery. He made an effort to have this a seat of the bishop, and,
succeeding, was himself made its first bishop. Simeon, who laid the
cathedral foundation, lived only long enough to finish the choir and
one transept, and of his work this transept only now remains.
The nave, the great western tower as high as the first battlements,
and the south transept were finished, the former in 1174, and the
latter in 1189. The great western portico was begun in 1200, and
finished in 1215. In 1552 extensions were made, and in 1322 the
octagonal lantern of the tower was begun, and it was finished in
1328. A spire of wood was built on this in 1342, which was afterwards
removed. Various repairs and restorations have been from then till now
going on, and we have it at present in fine condition of repair. It is
built of a grayish, or dark soapstone-colored stone, resembling the
cathedral at Salisbury; and on the stone is a large lot of lichens,--a
species of fungus or moss, such as is often seen on our common stones
of field walls, though so very thin and close to the stone as at times
to appear simply like a stain on the material. The building is 517
feet long, 179 feet wide at the transepts, and the nave and aisles are
respectively 78 feet wide and 70 feet high.
A marked and important feature of this cathedral is the great west
tower, on the four corners of which are large octagonal buttress piers,
ending in very lofty turrets, crowned with battlements; and inside
of these, but somewhat lower, is an octagonal lantern section, also
crowned with an embattled parapet. The tower is very elaborate and
elegant in its finish and proportions, and is in all 306 feet high.
Another peculiarity of the cathedral is that at the intersection of the
nave, transepts, and choir, are four subordinate sides in which are
elegant windows, and the whole great octagon, ending at the outside
lines with groined work; and the centre part is a lantern which is open
well up into the great tower over it.
The interior of this cathedral is elegant and wonderfully elaborate,
and is excelled by no cathedral in the kingdom. Here, if anywhere, may
it be said that rich Gothic architecture is "frozen music." Speak as
favorably as one will of other cathedrals, they may yet be lavish in
praise of Ely; and it may be added that the painted glass windows are
incredibly fine and in keeping with the grand building they illuminate.
Of one thing we repeatedly speak, and it is that we are glad that we
did not see the interior of a cathedral like this first; else many
of the others would have appeared tame and weak. All, however, have
their own peculiar glories, and, as productions of art, do their own
respective work.
There are but few monuments of note in the cathedral. There were
once, however, many of bishops, priors, and deans, but all have been
destroyed or removed but two; they are of Bishop Gray and of Lewis de
Luxemburg, who was made bishop in 1438, and who held the bishopric by
special dispensation of the Pope, being at the same time Archbishop of
Rouen, France, and also a cardinal.
Among the eminent men who have been bishops of this cathedral is
Matthew Wren, who was elected bishop in 1638. He was uncle of the
distinguished architect of St. Paul's at London, Sir Christopher Wren,
and he held the following offices at different periods: Master of St.
Peter's College, Cambridge; Dean of Windsor; and Bishop of Hereford,
and also of Norwich. He was a great sufferer during the Usurpation and
the Rebellion, but outlived both, and before his death saw peace and
tranquility restored. In looking over the list of Ely's bishops, one is
astonished to observe how eminent they must have been, if we may judge
from their having previously been bishops in other cathedrals. Simon
Langham, elected here in 1332, was a cardinal, and, after being here,
was bishop at Canterbury. Thomas de Armdel, of 1374, was translated
to York, and then to Canterbury. John Morton, of 1478, was afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Goodrich, of 1534, was once Bishop
of Westminster, and also of Norwich. Simon Patrick, of 1691, was at
Chichester as bishop, and was dean at Peterboro'. Remarkable confidence
seems to have been reposed in the bishops of Ely for uprightness and
integrity, and a business talent as well; for as many as twelve of them
were chancellors of England, and four of them founded colleges or were
masters at Cambridge.
As we try to select a few items of especial interest from the vast
amount before us, the task is bewildering, and when a final work
has been done, it is so meagre and paltry as to cause uncomfortable
thoughts, and put to flight all anticipations of even a reasonable
satisfaction.
These vast buildings, so elegant in decoration, so aged, so satisfying
to the beholder, as remarkable works of skill in decorative and
constructive points of view, are great museums and libraries of
themselves; and to the reflective observer there _are_ "sermons in
stones." When here and at like places, we are amid the results of
the anticipations and prayers and labors of centuries. We go back to
the day when a lot of mortals, full of a pious aspiration for the
good and the true,--yet superstitious,--were travelling over these
spots in quest of a best place for study and repose; and they at
last here rested, and founded an abbey or monastery, a priory it may
be, or a simple nunnery. By-and-by the foundation of a great church
was to be laid, but with no hope or expectation of ever seeing
those foundation walls of an entire cathedral reach even the earth's
surface: comprehending the scheme, they plied themselves to the task,
and labored and died; others came, the walls arose, and centuries
passed. Tower, battlement, and roof climbed heavenward, and then came
consecration and worship, but never rest. Death of prelate, then
monuments were in order; repairs of cathedral; civil wars, rebellions,
destruction of the art-work of centuries; overturnings of doctrines,
disputes, and surrender of cathedral, and all its sacred belongings
come; new doctrines are inaugurated, and become the law of the land.
Generations after generations are born and die. The cathedral grows
old, aged; the grounds only remain as they were; and _not_ as they
were, for the soil is raised by the dust of the thousands that are
buried and moulder in it, and so, in transfigured glory, even the old
trees that throw their grateful shadows have in their fibre earth that
was once the royal bone and flesh and sinew of bishop, cardinal, or
king. At places in cathedral premises are charnel houses, or rooms
where are deposited bones and remains exhumed, or taken from tombs,
and these are thrown into promiscuous heaps to moulder on a little
longer, and, having become resolved back to mother earth, to be quietly
shovelled out as food for grass and flowers on the great lawns. These
are the seen, the temporal; but the unseen, the eternal, is no less
fact, nor less real, for the influence these men exerted lives and
acts. The mortal is greater than any material thing he builds. That
decays, and as an organized thing ceases to be, but the influence of
thought dies never. We know not into whose little mass of earth, whose
narrow house, the rootlets of the tree whose branches shade us have
gone, and taken up their infinitesimal particles of human earth, and
carried it on to make leaf and blossom, or fibre of wood or bark. We
know it has been done, and is yet doing, and has been so for centuries;
for, as Shakespeare has it:--
Imperious Cæsar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away;
Oh that the earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!
Not seen as fact, with material eyes, but known beyond peradventure
by the less material thought; so it is of the deeds done,--living and
acting, when the authors are dead, as the world judges and declares.
But are not the great arch and pillar of nave influential now? Is not
the elegant decoration of cut stone refining to those of this day? Does
not the largeness even of the cathedral inspire us now to do large
things? Does not the patience of monk, of old bishop, of the master
mind of those back ages,--content to but lay a foundation and then
resignedly die,--does not that beget the like, even in this hurrying
nineteenth-century time? And the determination of Cromwell or of Henry
VIII., even though destructionists,--iconoclasts not only of stone, but
unwittingly of superstitions and religious tyranny,--though in a sense
tyrants themselves, does not their work make it comfortable for free
conscientious worship now? Does not the work of such ones and their
sustaining bishops,--of martyrs, by their faithfulness and sacrifices
even of life itself,--do not these make our good conditions possible,
which but for them would never have been? Cathedral _is_ museum and
library; it is shrine,--inspiring thought and evolving new good, and
in no way inferior to picture-gallery or depository of mechanical
production or of curious art.
A long digression this, and but for the license we at the start
reserved, apology would be due. We greatly enjoyed Ely and all things
in it. A fine long walk came next, from the cathedral off half a mile
into a back road, where, amid the good suburban shade of overhanging
garden trees, and enveloped in the nice odor of flowers, we took our
last view of the old structure, and turned our feet to the station.
Dreamish was the whole thing. A few hours ago we were not in sight
of the famed place, where has crystallized the greatness engendered
by centuries. A choice bit of earth, covered over and enveloped in
extraordinary history and momentous events, the site of any cathedral
is. A few hours only there at the shrine, and the material curtain
for us two drops, and never perhaps to be raised while we are in the
flesh. It was another scene of lightning-like presentation, but the
photograph was taken. The impression is clear, clean-cut of detail and
outline; and though it may be dimmed it will never be effaced, nor
beyond recall. We leave the famed place, and, entering the station, sit
mute in our car. The common things of every-day life take us in charge.
Engine, embankments, bridges, tunnels, fields, every-day things,
terribly modern, come up in front, and gently absorb attention. The
mind quietly and imperceptibly yields. We are kindly let down, and the
spell is broken.
We are on our way to Cambridge. It's 6.30 P. M. only, and
that's early for these long English June days. Classic and worthily
renowned Cambridge! Our thoughts go _on_ and not _back_ now. When one
has been thinking of a great thing, it's a comfort, when ruthlessly
removing from it, to be permitted to think of another as great or
greater.