The Cathedral of Saint Mary at Salisbury is not filled with gilding
and warm color as the churches of southern Europe are. Its builders
aimed rather at simplicity such as their forefathers used--plain gray
walls, unornamented columns and arches, and few paintings. The edifice
seems to reflect the antique dignity of those upright pillars of the
Druids at Stonehenge, which is not far from Salisbury. Here we have the
outcome of British race feeling in splendidly finished architecture
placed almost side by side with that early crude expression of it.
The cathedral was begun in 1220 by Richard Poore, the bishop at Old
Sarum, who was so much annoyed by the officers of the king that he
decided to move the church to a site on his own land which has since
been named Salisbury. Old Sarum Cathedral, built on a bleak hill, had
suffered for lack of water. In his choice of a foundation Bishop Poore
went to the other extreme; for the swampy fields by the Avon, on which
this new cathedral was erected, were so often flooded that services
sometimes had to be suspended for days.
The beautiful Lady Chapel was built in five years. The entire building,
except the spire, which was not in the original plan, took only
forty-six years to complete. It was consecrated in 1266. But when the
spire was erected the architect in charge failed to strengthen the
foundations sufficiently. The pillars and arches bulged; for they had
never been intended to support such weight. In spite of arches walled
up and buttresses built, the tower sagged nearly two feet toward the
south, and has remained in that position ever since.
Though simplicity and calmness are characteristic of the original
Salisbury Cathedral, they have been emphasized to the point of bareness
by the restoration of James Wyatt, who destroyed nearly all the stained
glass windows, two chapels, and a belfry, and moved many of the tombs.
There are niches in the cathedral for over a hundred statues, which for
some reason were nearly empty at the middle of the last century. The
statues now in place are almost all modern: sculptured, however, with a
view to holding the original significance of the architecture. They are
arranged to represent the Te Deum.
[Illustration: CHATEAU DE CHAMBORD]
_Château de Chambord_