I
think one feels a sort of enmity and spite against these grave-diggers,
who live so long, and seem to contract a kindred and partnership with
Death, being boon companions with him, and taking his part against
mankind.
In a chapel or some side apartment, there were two pieces of tapestry
wretchedly faded, the handiwork of two nuns, and copied from two of
Raphael's cartoons.
We now emerged from the cathedral, and walked round its exterior,
admiring it to our utmost capacity, and all the more because we had not
heard of it beforehand, and expected to see nothing so huge, majestic,
grand, and gray. And of all the lovely closes that I ever beheld, that
of Peterborough Cathedral is to me the most delightful; so quiet it is,
so solemnly and nobly cheerful, so verdant, so sweetly shadowed, and so
presided over by the stately minster, and surrounded by ancient and
comely habitations of Christian men. The most enchanting place, the most
enviable as a residence in all this world, seemed to me that of the
Bishop's secretary, standing in the rear of the cathedral, and bordering
on the churchyard; so that you pass through hallowed precincts in order
to come at it, and find it a Paradise, the holier and sweeter for the
dead men who sleep so near. We looked through the gateway into the lawn,
which really seemed hardly to belong to this world, so bright and soft
the sunshine was, so fresh the grass, so lovely the trees, so trained and
refined and mellowed down was the whole nature of the spot, and so shut
in and guarded from all intrusion.
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