April 12th.--This morning was bleak and most ungenial; a chilly sunshine,
a piercing wind, a prevalence of watery cloud,--April weather, without
the tenderness that ought to be half revealed in it. This is
EASTER SUNDAY,
and service at the cathedral commenced at half past ten; so we set out
betimes and found admittance into the vast nave, and thence into the
choir. An attendant ushered S----- and J----- to a seat at a distance
from me, and then gave me a place in one of the stalls where the monks
used to sit or kneel while chanting the services. I think these stalls
are now appropriated to the prebends. They are of carved oaken wood,
much less elaborate and wonderfully wrought than those of Chester
Cathedral, where all was done with head and heart, each a separate
device, instead of cut, by machinery like this. The whole effect of this
carved work, however, lining the choir with its light tracery and
pinnacles, is very fine. The whole choir, from the roof downward, except
the old stones of the outer walls, is of modern renovation, it being but
a few years since this part of the cathedral was destroyed by fire. The
arches and pillars and lofty roof, however, have been well restored; and
there was a vast east window, full of painted glass, which, if it be
modern, is wonderfully chaste and Gothic-like. All the other windows
have painted glass, which does not flare and glare as if newly painted.
But the light, whitewashed aspect of the general interior of the choir
has a cold and dreary effect.
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