The nave and transepts are very noble, with
clustered pillars and Norman arches, and a great height under the central
tower; the whole, however, being covered with plaster and whitewash,
except the roof, which is of painted oak. This latter adornment has the
merit, I believe, of being veritably ancient; but certainly I should
prefer the oak of its native hue, for the effect of the paint is to make
it appear as if the ceiling were covered with imitation mosaic-work or an
oil-cloth carpet.
After sitting awhile, we were invited by a verger, who came from within
the screen, to enter the choir and hear the rest of the service. We
found the choristers there in their white garments, and an audience of
half a dozen people, and had time to look at the interior of the choir.
All the carved wood-work of the tabernacle, the Bishop's throne, the
prebends' stalls, and whatever else, is modern; for this cathedral seems
to have suffered wofully from Cromwell's soldiers, who hacked at the old
oak, and hammered and pounded upon the marble tombs, till nothing of the
first and very few of the latter remain. It is wonderful how suddenly
the English people lost their sense of the sanctity of all manner of
externals in religion, without losing their religion too. The French, in
their Revolution, underwent as sudden a change; but they became pagans
and atheists, and threw away the substance with the shadow.
I suspect that the interior arrangement of the choir and the chancel has
been greatly modernized; for it is quite unlike anything that I have seen
elsewhere.
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