The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-12-20
WELLS Ann LES OATHEDRAL.

When you walk through the town,you
will find everything worth looking-the
old houses to the north of the green, the
many gateways, the little almshouses,
where old men sit in the queer old stone
seats in the outer wall to which the pas
sers-by-in a word, everything beautiful
with the beauty of other days, belongs
in one way or another to cathedral or
church. At first you may think you
have found an exception in the market
place, where few gabled, houses with
prof citing stories and diamOnd-paned
windows and bits of carving still stand
overlooking the town fountain and the
cannon from Sevastopol. One of these
is the Crown Inn, from which William
Penn, who hated things ecclesiastical,
once taught the people of Wells the new
gospel of peace and love and salvation.
And yet the market place was built by
bishop, and in it you can not forget the
cathedral. 1t lifts its grey towers above
the gateway at the corner, the only pas
sage between the square and the cathe-
dral green. Near by is the beautiful old
gate-house, with crumbling tracery and
broken battlements, which leads towards
the palace. From the country round,
from meadow land and hilltops, 1t is al
WAYS cathedral and church you see
when your eyes turn towards Wells.
And so it is with the history of the town
in the past and in the present. In the
centuries that are gone, had 1t not been
for the cathedral there never would
have been town. The great men of
Wells were its bishops and priests; the
great deeds, the building of cathedral
and close, palace and deanery; the re
cords. those of the Catholic Church in
England through all her growth in pow
er and wealth and corruption, to her
| fall. Today, were it not for the cathe.
dral. the town would fall into the long
sleep for which already it seems so well
prepared. It ia this sleepiness which
first impresses the stranger. The mar
ket place and High street, for all their
shops, looked t1 US as if they had been
caught mapping. The two men in armor,
on the north transept wall, struck the
) quarters timidly, IS if to apologize for
| breaking the stiffness. The only signs
of activity were in the palace moat,
where ducks fought and tumbled under
the ems. But gradually We learned
somt thing of the real life of the town.
1t Is like the history of Wells, wholly
ecclesiastical, and centers about the
cathedral. Our rooms were in theVicar s
Close, and here we always heard the
near bells ringing for service, and saw
the canons and chorlsters on their way
to and fiom the cathedral. Later. the
theological students returned from their
holidays. Their rooms, too, were in the
close, and they were forever passing
back wards and forwards between 1t and
lecture-hall or tennis court. Three
times day through our open windows
came to the sweet sound Of their chant,
ing from the little chapel at the far end
of the enclosure. 1t was a quiet, peace
full life, such as you might imagine the
monks of old living; quieter now than
when the bishops power, temporal and
spiritual, was real, and moat and wall
about his palace served for defence as
well as beauty. Elizabeth Robins PEN
nell in the Magazine Of Art for Deem
her