The pavement is elaborately
ornamented; the ceiling is to be brilliantly gilded and painted, as it
was of yore, and the tracery and sculptures around the walls are to be
faithfully renewed from what remains of the original patterns.
After viewing the chapter-house, the verger--an elderly man of grave,
benign manner, clad in black and talking of the cathedral and the
monuments as if he loved them--led us again into the nave of the
cathedral, and thence within the screen of the choir. The screen is as
poor as possible,--mere barren wood-work, without the least attempt at
beauty. In the chancel there are some meagre patches of old glass, and
some of modern date, not very well worth looking at. We saw several
interesting monuments in this part of the cathedral,--one belonging to
the ducal family of Somerset, and erected in the reign of James I.; it is
of marble, and extremely splendid and elaborate, with kneeling figures
and all manner of magnificence,--more than I have seen in any monument
except that of Mary of Scotland in Westminster Abbey. The more ancient
tombs are also very numerous, and among them that of the Bishop who
founded the cathedral. Within the screen, against the wall, is erected a
monument, by Chantrey, to the Earl of Malmesbury; a full-length statue of
the Earl in a half-recumbent position, holding an open volume and looking
upward,--a noble work,--a calm, wise, thoughtful, firm, and not
unbenignant face.
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