Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1835-11-05
WHOLE NO. 292.

an American, VINO can never appeuse
such hunger at home. left the steam
er, with my friend, baggage and all, and
we rushed toward the Tow er that had sd
much captivated our eyes far down the
Ouse. | can describe no such thing as
this. ] can tell you how long, how wide,
and how high-but such an overpower-
ing mountain ofrock thus regularly hewn
out, thus regularly piled up, thus sculp-
tured and carved, the eye must see for
the mind ever to feel the magnitude Of
the undertaking. The first question in
the reveries OF the spectator is, who can
have put together on this plain such u
mount ain for church-it mast be the
growth of centuries. 1t must take the
wealth Of worlds. And then long train
OF reflections arses-of the power Of the
Catholic Priest to extort such labour in
the darker ages from the rude and pow
erty-strcken peasan obedient TO his con-
troll or if not from him, from the refined
baron or king who feared God that he
did not know. Such work now, it is
said, could not be erected without sum
nearly as large as the whole annual ex-
penditure Of the government Of the twen'
ty four United States, nor IN less than
fifty, or even hundred years. The cs-
timated expense Of merely repairing it,
after the lunatic Martin had destroyed
all the carved wood by setting fire to it
in 1929, was nearly 325 thousand dollars.
We could not tarry long 10 look at the
outside of the majestic pile, for the view
is but narrow one at its base, budding
around as there do, SO many miserable
buildings in narrow streets;-and our Gu
rioshy too was rapidly urging us onward
and inward. The door was opened and
pushed by its guardians. BY heavens
it seems as ifit was not made, e,--but as if
the very stone had g'own up in trees'
and tracery, with arms Unlocked with
arches, as if some day or other, on some
rows Of mighty oaks then filled with men
and kings,-a sudden petrifaction had
come, and left all as they were for ages
10, here are columns resembling the
men of ancient days, and the kings from
William the Copqueror to Henry the vi,
all in a stone screen as large as life, carv-
ed not as if il were the work Of man, but
as ifthey had stood there when they died
with their royal insignia on, and become
stone! feel as if l had left the land Of
the living, and was already in the abyss
Of the dead. Even the echo Of my foot
steps along the aisle and the vault, dis
turbs me, for seem TO tread on holy
ground. There is a sad solemnity over
coming ne,-an awe that makes him
speak in whispers, and tread the pave-
ment with fear. | moved cautiously a.
long the nave and transept Qhe cross
ases Of the Cathedral.) went into
the choir and gazed at the lofty organ
and its immense pipes. stared with as
tonishment at the high stretching win
dows of stained glass representing 1
know not how many saints Of the Calen-
der-the first have ever seen. Ivan
dered among the tombs, and the monu-
ments upon them-but this new sensation
was soon over, thus do we rapidly change,
and new one came upon me.
The service Of the day was about COM
mencing in the Cathedral and one ofthe
officers delivered us to the care Of
guide, who after we had listened while
to the sounds of the organ as they swell
ed and rolled from aisle to aisle, and
from pillar to pillar, renewing yet more
warmly all the solemnty such scene
is calculated to pire,-began his OPP
eratons Of guidance. Our guide, though
of the Cathedral, was one of those men
who have but single knowledge sim
gle idea, and this so magnifed, so ever
eflervescing, that he bursts when he de-
livers it.
you must admire he commenced,
syou must admire gentlemen,-with all
the gravity Of an owl, while j was oppres-
sed with admiration, which from that mo-
ment was turning to ridicule-'you must
admire, , with a yet louder voice, the
more he repeated it-that Incompatible
vista of 524 feet in length You must
admire he went on, that majestic win
dow Is feet high and 80 broad-the
grandest object Of admiration IN the
1 worldr Whew!-for this was said with
a flourish unequalled even by Mr.. Nc
/ Duties best, even in his greatest ora
torical spasms. And by this time, as my
companion was in convulsions Of laugh
teri can assure you was in no con-
dt,on to admire any thing at all. But,
he continued, aroused by the importance
of his oflice-'you must admire Gen-ue-
men, the amazing solidity OF these clus-
tered piers, and the vasiness oi 'ne span
of the arches and all this too with ro-
tundi,y of enunciaiion that made me roar
out. right with laughter. The honest
yu;de believed that the greater the
s,,sms into which he threw himself, the
Greater wouM be ours, and so he con-
iinu,d TO have these spas'nodic oreiori.
| .Y ,: al The whole Cathedral