[Illustration: SALISBURY CATHEDRAL
_A view from the northeast, showing plainly the double-cross shape of
the foundation._]
[Illustration: NAVE OF SALISBURY CATHEDRAL
_A number of interesting monuments were placed between the columns by
James Wyatt._]
If the interior of Amiens personifies in the highest degree the majesty
and glory of Christian faith, the spire of Salisbury may be said to
embody its hope and aspiration. Rising four hundred and four feet from
the ground, this spire has few to rival it in all the world. Other
cathedrals might dispute its claim to first place among spires; but
none is set upon a church so fine. That Salisbury is the most beautiful
cathedral in England is not claimed. As was the case in France, so
here, there are too many churches, each with its own distinctive
points of beauty, for anyone to be the finest of them all.
But Salisbury at least must find a place among the first, and is
especially interesting because it is exactly contemporary as to date
with Amiens in France. Architecturally both are Gothic; yet the
difference in design is as great as the distance in miles between
them. Low instead of lofty, with little decoration, and set in the
midst of nature's grass and trees instead of in a crowded city,
Salisbury's appeal is through the quiet beauty of its line, and the
simplicity of its construction in contrast to the complex structure
of the French cathedral. The Gothic of England was rarely the Gothic
of carefully balanced thrust and pressures, of flying buttresses and
huge window spaces. Here at Salisbury the walls are still quite heavy
and the windows only moderately large. They have no tracery of stone;
but are simple, narrow openings in the walls, with pointed heads so
like a lance in shape that they have given the name of Lancet to this
period of English Gothic architecture. Slow to throw off their earlier
traditions, the English builders clung, even in Gothic days, to many
of the characteristics of the Norman era, which had produced such
masterpieces as Durham and Peterborough, Ely and Norwich, cathedrals.
The result of this is especially evident in the interior of Salisbury;
for here, in spite of the shafts of Purbeck marble, one for each hour
in the year, and in spite of the rich moldings of the piers and arches,
the lack of structural unity, and the comparative smallness of the
windows and lowness of the vaulting cause Salisbury's nave to fall far
short of that of Amiens in beauty of construction. Viewed from the
west, the cathedral is also disappointing; for the façade is an ugly
screen wall, badly decorated, and deserving of little praise. But when
seen from north or south or east, with its spire rising from the very
heart of the church, Salisbury is truly inspiring. In its quiet close
it seems the very expression of the church at peace.