Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-14

wAKEMAN,S WANDERINGs.

wAKEMAN,s WANDERINGs. Some old Cathedral Towns-Glouces- ter, England-Far From Worn Ways of Travel, 1t is Rich fin History, Mellow Traditions and Quaint old Architecture of Long Ago-Irs Noble Cathedral.
 GLOUCESTER, England, April 31. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: From among the Cotswold hills I had for days caught enticing glimpses of the spires and roofs of ancient Gloucester grouped about the huge tower of its splen- did cathedral, all snuggled amid rich yer dure beside the gleaming waters of the Severn. The old cathedral town, far from the worn ways of travel, rich in history, legends and quaint old architecture of long ago, and still peaceful and simple in it's provincial coloring and ways, at last won me from the mountains through winding beech-lined roads and blossoming haw- thorn lanes.
 Besides, there was personal interest in the gray old town. All of us, title -haters that we Americans fiercely assure the rest of the world we are, love to know, if we are honest enough to confess it, that, away back somewhere along the blood line be- hind us, there has been some one of our kin who was somebody, who really did something, and was man enough, good or bad, to have left an impress and record upon the affairs of his time. Without pride or envy could contemplate those of my family and name who as the 'eldest sons of eldest sons," had for nearly a thousand years enjoyed their titles, estates and castles over in Shropshire and Wales. But to know that another relative, John chaplain to Henry VIII, had not only been made the first bishop of the see of Gloucester on its erection into diocese, the 3d of September, 1541, but had also been one of the trsnslators of the New Testament, the Revelations of St. John having been assigned to him, was some thing to quicken the pace and send along the veins pleasant thrill of fine satisfac- ton and pride.
 Something after the manner of the own ership feeling of Silas Wegg in his inno- cent delusion regarding "Our House" and its "Miss Elizabeth" "Master George" "Aunt Jane" and "Uncle Parker" found myself basking in the pleasant mysticisms of tolerative relationship. The very wraiths of history that haunt the valley seemed to come closer and clearer than though my relative had not been the first prelate of this important see. The Isle of Alney, there in the Severn, where Edmund Ironside and Canute the Dane in 1916 de- cided great war by single combat, was tinted with the interest of remote fami- ly incident. Tewkesbury across the val ley wonder where the house of York crushed the house of Lancaster, and the aisles of the old abbey ran with blood in the butchery of the adherents of ill-fsted Margaret and her murdered boy prince, came dreamily within the same gorgeous setting.
 Even the mad antics of Richard Plan tagenet, who was Duke of Gloucester (Gloster) and who conferred many honors and benefits upon the fine city and shire, took on more favorable guise. The burn ing of Bishop Hooper hard by the cathe- dral gates paled behind the flmy veil of his troublous times. There was a person. al and mournful interest in the cortege which bore the body of murdered Edward II. to its resting place in the mighty cathe- dral. And, from the later days, there was waited a spell of personal qualification that an archbishop of Canterbury and a man like Robert Rsikes, founder of Sun- day schools, had grown into their great stature of fame from out the environment ~f {lf c1r 1yohr
 Self graduation is such a wanton jade and intoxicant that I tramped from the hills into the old cathedral city in elsted exultance, almost meeting the gaze of hon. est Gloucester folk with the exuberance of expectant recognition. There must have been too easy an air of familiarity in my aspect and manner, considering that the mud of the mountain sheep walks was still on my huge-soled shoes. It seemed, in my pleasant frame of mind, as though the landlord of the humble inn where l came to lodge ought to have called me by name and come to the door to receive me. Perhaps he had never heard of my rela- tive, the bishop.
 But he merely glanced at my trousers and shoes Then ''boots" showed me to a room in the caves. Returning shortly, he presented bill. in advance, as follows: ''Lodging, one and sixpence; attendance, sixpence; candle, three pence; boots, three pence. Total, two and sixpence. Paid, with thanks"
 I don't think the landlord expected "boots" to return with the money. But he did, and alive besides. For as l de- scended into the little vine-hung inn-yard noticed with pain that the coffee room | maid was gathering together, as if for has l ty order, the remnants of some other trav- a1o r,,oa1 hn nrnhah1v had luggage if no great relatives; and as passed out into the pleasant streets of the | leafy old city was sorely haunted by the reflective query whether, had that land lord known of the prelate and of the ii tied folk over in Shropshire and Wales, he | would have let me lodge at the little inn al all.
 In every other English cathedral town have visited have always found a "Higt | street" the principal thoroughfare into which all others lead, and from which some picturesque wynd or court brings you direct to the cathedral close. It is differ ent in Gloucester. There was once a fla nous cross at the very center of the city | The two main streets of the town inter sect each other here. One running north l and south is Northgate and Southgate, tc and from the place still called "the Cross. The other is Eastgate and Westgate, to and | from the same spot.
 | All that which is picturesque and charm
 ing from its antiquity, and that is much ir Gloucester, will be found within distance
 of five hundred yards from the Cross, upon
 these intersecting thoroughfares, or in tho l sleepy old courts leading into them, al l ways increasing in mum Der and interest a' l you approach the Cross, In ''the Rows
 of Chester will undoubtedly be found the
 greatest number of oddly constructed
 half -timbered old Elizabethsn houses oi
 any provincial city of England.
 But here in Gloucester are certainly more and more winsome individual in
 stances. At the corner of Northgste stree
 and Shakespeare road, where B. Jenkins
 "Sol 8 and Heels Gents shoes for two anc
 sixp, nee, and Ladies' at one and nine,
 and is also Barber and Naturalist" :" who
 with his "humsn various" reminds yoI
 strikingly of "Mr. Venus" in Mutua
 Friend, is a quainter structure than eve
 Dickens painted.
 A little further up the same street, a
 No. 102, is huge old building, now trans
 formed into foundry, where Sir William
 Gladstone, father of the present Libers leader, formerly carried on a banking bus
 iness; and five-pound note of his issu
 may still be seen in the Gloucester muse
 um Just opposite is the most character
 istic old inn, entered through a huge ar
 cade, have yet found in England. It i
 called New Inn. though very, very old. l was built to accommodate the pilgrims t the tomb of Edward H., under the abbac of Thomas Seabroke in 154l. It is fou hundred and fifty-one years old and absc