desideratum. I have never heard here that the mayor of York, or his justices of the peace, were obliged to pay court to the Lord Lieutenant. If elected by the people, our mayors would consult in a greater degree the people's interests; and it is perhaps a contradiction to have given the French a charter, without first giving them constitutional habits, and a municipal administration in harmony with the representative frame of the government.

I shall not describe the abbey of St. Mary, or rather, its magnificent ruins, although I might justly compare them to those of Mont Major, that monastery of which, according to the inhabitants of Arles, Louis XIV. prevented the completion, through jealousy of its being a finer structure than the Louvre. The finest building in York is, decidedly, the cathedral, one of the wonders of Great Britain, and of Gothic architecture. The citizens of York wish to substitute English architecture for this phrase, alleging that the pointed arch was invented in England. The Voyages Pittoresques of Nodier and Taylor have settled this question, to which I have already referred. The first age of Christian architecture in England lasted from the conversion of the Saxons to the conquest of the Normans in 1066.

The architecture of that epoch was Saxon; the demi-circular arch was its characteristic trait. From 1066 to 1200 under Richard I. the architecture was Norman; the model of this appertained to France. From 1200 to 1300 the English archæologists maintain that the architecture of

their country assumed a character peculiar to itself; and they designate the monuments of this period, as monuments of incipient English architecture. From 1300 to 1460 that architecture was perfecting itself, and introducing ornaments; this constitutes the ornamented English style. At length, from Edward III. to Henry VIII., from 1460 to 1537, the churches appertain to the florid English style. York cathedral was half a century in building, commencing under Henry III. (1227) and completed under Edward I. (1291).

The imposing, and at the same time graceful mass of the edifice, surveyed at a distance, might be poetically compared to a vessel in full sail. The space which this temple covers, without cloisters and courts, is two acres. The temple of Diana at Ephesus covered only one. Compared with the Basilicons of the true God, the pagan temples were little better than chapels. Had the architects of Athens seen St. Peter's at Rome, they would have invented some mythological allegory, in order to explain the possibility of suspending a temple in the air. York cathedral, in its immense ensemble, exhibits all the elegance and chaste symmetry of those Greek monuments so much eulogized for the proportions of their details. What splendour and majesty in that façade, with its two lateral turrets, the ornaments of which are so delicate as to appear entirely perforated or transparent!' Let us enter the edifice.

*

*These turrets, by their projecting too much, injure the effect of the central tower, which appears heavy by the contrast.

This precinct of 524 feet in extent still farther surpasses expectation. The eye is never tired with admiring the pillars which compose, by the expansion of their capitals, the eight equal arches of the nave. The colours and figures of the stained glass are perfect. The five lancet windows of the north aisle are called the five sisters, since a tradition ascribes them to five young virgins, who endowed the church with them by means of a pious collection. The light transmitted through these brilliant paintings has something of a fantastic character. But the numerous sculptures of the lobby remind us that we are approaching the court; five statues of English kings, from William I. to Henry VI., adorn the niches; but these statues, which are coarse and mutilated by time, are not of successful workmanship. As to the interior of the choir, it surpasses description; the elaboration of the sculpture is here prodigious. The windows do not excite a less degree of admiration; and when on being shewn the largest, adorned with figures of the Virgin, as angelical as those of Raphael, the sexton tells you that it is the wonder of the world, you find yourself surprised into a concurrence with his opinion. I have paid four visits to this sumptuous and elegant choir the last was of four hours' length, and occurred at the moment when the daily service commences. A small congregation was present; and the organ and voices of the choristers performed an anthem. I really fancied myself listening to a celestial concert. I do not exaggerate. I do not know which

most affected me, the solemn music of the organ, or the voices of some of the children, which were replete with ineffable purity and sweetness. I shed tears of emotion, and thinking of my mother, as I always do when I weep, whatever be the cause, I addressed a prayer to heaven for her, which I have no doubt will be heard.*

The sepulchral monuments are numerous in this edifice.

We visited the vestry, where the archbishop invests himself with his pontifical robes, and where are preserved the church registers. The sexton shewed us, as curiosities, three chalices, found in the tombs of three catholic archbishops, pastoral staves, a superb silver cross, surmounted with a figure of the Virgin holding the infant Jesus in her arms, and an antique goblet (poculum charitatis), given by one of the pontiffs to the York corporation, and bearing the following inscription "Forty days' indulgence are granted by me to those who drink from this cup. Richard, Arch. bishop." The sexton shews you, as I have said, all these things as so many trophies torn from the grasp of papal superstition. To hear him talk of the idolatrous practices of the papists, one felt inclined to call upon him for an account of the ashes of these catholic prelates, which founded the won

* My philosopher wept, I believe, like myself, and will not contradict my enthusiasm for York cathedral, and for the religious music I have referred to. The excellence of the organ has been cited; and I was told the name of the organist. The musician is called Dr. Camidge.

drous temple we had just been surveying. What great difference, indeed, is there between the worship of these idolaters and that of the heirs to their treasures and distinctions! A chair is also shewn in the vestry, of a curious shape, as old as the time of the heptarchy, and which has served for a throne to Saxon kings on the day of their coronation. This chair, a striking record of the vanity of worldly pride, is sometimes replaced in its pristine situation in the choir near the altar, when his grace the Archbishop of York, absenting himself for a few months from court and parliament, honours his diocese and cathedral with his gracious presence. The Lord Archbishop has himself a palace, ecclesiastical courtiers, and more than a million of revenue, resulting from tithes and other contributions. What had his idolatrous prede

cessors more?

The English church, it is true, has lost those donations which formerly enriched the chapters and the convents; and I am reminded of them by the horn of ivory which is seen among the other relics at York, and which is referred to as the horn of king Ulphus, in the letter from the author of Ivanhoe to Dr. Dryasdust.

Visitors should not omit seeing the chapterhouse of the York cathedral; a building contiguous to the north aisle. It is an octagon of very beautiful sculpture, and adorned with forty-four stalls. The capitals of the columns exhibit variegated and eccentric forms, but producing great effect; and the stained glass windows are worthy