The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-04-16


was fortress, with strong walls and
well-filled moat; when the beautiful
west gate, which only our own age was
vile enough to detroy, kept stout ward
against the outer world, and protected
the favored community who formed
within the walls county independent
of Lich6eld and of Staffordshire.
Within the sacred pale no law had
force save that of the Ecclesiastical
Court, and then, AS now, none could
there be taken for debt or crime save
on the warrant of the dean and
chapter.
He knew by heart the long list of
bishops, ard would have glldly held
me to hear of the good deeds of Lang
ton and Hackett. He was fairly
launched in his favorite enthusiasm,
and told warmly the more striking
features of the church's history, but he
told them rapidly lest should reach
the storied pile with less than a full
apprehension of its traditional inter-
est.
From his nervous lips l learned how
King Richard ii. kept Christmas re-
vels here with splendor that lavished
two hundred tons of wine, and roast
ed two hundred oxen, whose bones
are still found in Oxenbury field hard
by; how Elizabeth passed three whole
days in the close; and how the solidity
of its fortifcation, the consummate
grace and finish of its architecture, the
richness of its sculpture, and the sur
passing beauty and magnifcence of
the nine windows of its lady chapel
marked it as the crowning glory of
the Western Church, until the dark
days of the Revolution lowered.
Then its sore trials were recounted, and
| learned of the fanatical attack of
Lord Brooke, "with his horse of impi-
GUS Roundheads," made by strange fa-
tality on st. Chad's day; of the shoot
ing of Lord Brooke by "Dumb Dyott,"
who was perched in the steeple with a
fowling piece that now hangs over the
fireplace of Col. Dyott's house; of the
surrender of the close by Lord Ches-
terfield. of the sack and bout that fol.
lowed; of the recapture by Prince
Rupert.
He told of the foul desecration by
the Roundheads. who used every spe-
cies of havoc, plunder, aud profana-
tion,-pulling down the sacred effigies
which were the glory of the western
front, hacking to pieces the curious
carvings of the choir, MASKING the
noses of the monumental statues, de-
stroying the valuable evidences and
records of the church and city, shat
tenng the glass of the costly windows,
save only that of the marvellous
nine of the lady chapel, which a pious
care was said to have removed to a
place of safety. They kept courts of
guard in the cross aisles, broke up the
pavements, and every day hunted a
cat with hounds throughout the
church, delighting in the echoes from
the vauted roof; they wrapped calf
in linen, and Sin derision and scorn of
the sacrament of BAPTISM" sprinkled
it at the font and gave it name
How the king, after the defeat Of
Naseby, came from Ashby de- e-laHouche,
and passed the night in the close, e,--how
Cromwells defaming crew completed
the work of demolition and desecra-
ton. and smashed the old bell called
Jesus, with its legend 81 am the bell
of Jesus, and Edward is our King; Sir
Thomas Haywood first caused me to
ring,'-how, finally, the chapter-house
alone had roof under which services
might be said,-how the good Hackett
on the first day of his bishopric set his
own servants and his own coach horses
at work removing the rubbish, and
never tired until in eight years time
the magnificence of the cathedral was
restored, except for the forever irrepa,-
able loss of the decorations, and espec-
tally of the lady chapel windows,
which all the cost of the restoration
would have sufliced to renew,-how
the church was reconsecrated with
great pomp and solemnity,-all this he
told me in detail, and he would have
gladly told more, for the poor brother
had made these few rich historic acres
nearly his whole world, and had peo
pied it with all who throughout the
long ages had marred it or had made
it. To have given ''two good trees"
for the rebuilding of the church was a
title to his lasting and grateful recog-
milton.
But the light was fast waning, and
the cathedral must be seen now or per-
haps never, 1t was already past the
hour for closing. but ore of the verg-
ers had formerly been poor brother
of ST. Johns and my companion went
to him to secure our admission.
| stood before the west front of the
cathedral, which was then bathed in
the lingering light of the after-day, its
great central window cleaning as
though the altar lamps were burning
behind it,and the western spires almost
losing themselves in the sky. The
quaint etligies that fill the inches across
the whole facade lost their grotesque.
ness in the dusk, and seemed really
the sacred sculptures they were meant
to be. Fair though this rich front
must be at high midday, it needs for
its full beauty the half-light of North
ern evening. As seen on that rarest
of all evenings, it was IA fit introduc-
ton to the subdued glory which greet
ed us in the dim religious light to
which we entered as the great central
door closed behind us.
We stood, uncovered and reverent,
beneath the vaulted nave, looking down
the long curved aisle, bordered by the
majesty of the clustered columns,
through the light illuminated screen OF
the choir, full upon the sculptured and
gem-set alabaster reredos, above and
beyond which stood the famed group
of windows of the lady chapel, mel
lowed by the light of the streaming
full moon.
Rich in the blended mosaic of the
floor, in the deep canopy overhead, in
the lightly arched gallery of the tri
forum, in the mellow cross lights Of
the side windows, in the sombre cary
ings OF the choir, and above all in the
marvellous glass of the chapel, it wa,
the very perfection of a worshipfu