The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-05-20
THE: BENNINGTON BANNER, FRIDAY, MAY 90 1892

minds have with matchless fidelity given
of their best effort or absolutely their
life's devotion, towards the perfection of
this mighty prayer in stone.
And there are cathedrals and cathe-
drals besides. There is the vast and
gloomy sort like York Minister; those of
Doric ponderosity, like st. PauPs in
Londour and those that blind if not the
spiritual the physical sight with their
vastliness and ghastliness like Canter-
bury.
But it seems to me that whether you
contemplate this Gloucester cathedral
from without, until your minds recep-
tivities of form and proportion have
brought it's fine outlines and majestic
central tower into the most fitting shape
you can conceive stone to be set, in sa-
cred structures or have stood at the side
of, and just beneath its west window,
within the nave, and followed its splen-
did lines of depth and height, up and
on, up and on-past choir Greens and
choir, and delicate flying buttresses
across the great transept-opening above,
the wOndrous carvings of the chancel and
the chantry faces, the high altar and the
| filmy Gothic reredos, to that marvellous
east window, greatest in Britain, behind
you have here feasted upon as perfect
Christian temple as the inspired build
ers have ever wrought.
And for these reasons! Massiveness
and spaclousness have been brought into
loving proportion. Perspective and en-
Enlistment are here poem in harmony.
Loftiness has been, in the delicate groin
ing, fretwork and tracery of the roof, so
LUMINOSITY enwreathed, that all the up
ward aspect to the behOlder is one of in
slant and lasting exultation. Never
elsewhere have seen such perfect blend
ing of miracles of human handiwOrk
with the magic of distance and the en-
chantment of light. 1t can only be
likened to the arched vaulting OF majes-
tic forest trees, where innumerable inter
lacing branches and leaves so filter, but
do not turn back, the sunlight, that from
| highest arch to sward beneath, there is
pulsing, palapable, transcendent glow
To simply the art lover there is pro-
found pleasure to be derived from visit
to Gloucester cathedral. The student of
ecclesiastic art will discover ample ex-
amples from the time of the old Anglo
Saxon builders down past the early Nor
man workers along the development in
first and middle Pointed, Perpendicular
and the modern Gothic. Whoever loves
to dwell upon ecclesiastical history will
find world of material in tradition and
fact from the time of Lucius, IN the sec
ond century, to that of Victoria in this.
The antiquarian can come upon no
richer field. And he who delves in civil
history will find much to feast upon
here where parliaments have assembled,
kings have been crowned and monarchs
lie entombed.
More unique, splendid and interesting
than those of any other British cathe-
dral are the cloisters. North and south
they are IA feet in length, 147 feet long
in the east and west alleys, twelve feet
wide and eighteen feet in height; with
the famous chapter-house reached from
the east walk The fan-vaulting of their
roof is the earliest specimen in England,
and the most magnificent eXtant. Here
in open, arched and embattled recesses,
overlooking the sunny cloister garth, the
old monks studied and wrote. One will
linger long and lovingly in these. And,
could l have my wish, with the chapter
house for a dormitory, in these noble
cloisters 1 would idle and dream, and in
restfulness and peace work out some
grand design.-Edgar L. Wakemdn in
Sunday Budget.