There must be no confusion in
such a cathedral as this, and I question whether the effect will ever be
better than it is now, when each monument has its distinct place, and as
your eye wanders around, you are not distracted from noting each marble
man, in his niche against the wall, or at the base of a marble pillar.
Space, distance, light, regularity, are to be preserved, even if the
result should be a degree of nakedness.
I saw Mr. Appleton of the Legation, and Dr. Brown, on the floor of the
cathedral. They were about to go over the whole edifice, and had engaged
a guide for that purpose; but, as I intend to go thither again with
S-----, I did not accompany them, but went away the quicker that one of
the gentlemen put on his hat, and I was ashamed of being seen in company
with a man who could wear his hat in a cathedral. Not that he meant any
irreverence; but simply felt that he was in a great public building,--as
big, nearly, as all out of doors,--and so forgot that it was a
consecrated place of worship. The sky is the dome of a greater cathedral
than St. Paul's, and built by a greater architect than Sir Christopher
Wren, and yet we wear our hats unscrupulously beneath it.
I remember no other event of importance, except that I penetrated into a
narrow lane or court, either in the Strand or Fleet Street, where was a
tavern, calling itself the "Old Thatched House," and purporting to have
been Nell Gwyn's dairy. I met with a great many alleys and obscure
archways, in the course of the day's wanderings.
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