Young Americans Abroad. Various

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_914bc0fa-528d-5f11-b74f-ffa7ebd9bbf2.png" alt="Thomas Chatterton."/> Thomas Chatterton.

      At the east end of the church is the Chapel of the Virgin Mary. A noble room it is. A large statue of Queen Elizabeth, in wood, stands against one of the windows, just where it did thirty-seven years ago, when I was a youngster, and went to her majesty's grammar school, which is taught in the chapel. I showed the boys the names of my old school-fellows cut upon the desks. How various their fates! One fine fellow, whose name yet lives on the wood, found his grave in the West Indies, on a voyage he had anticipated with great joy.

      I am glad to say that a spirited effort is now making to restore this gorgeous edifice. It was greatly needed, and was commenced in 1846. I do wish you could see this church and gaze upon its interior. I have obtained some fine drawings of parts of the edifice, and they will enable you to form some faint idea of the splendor of the whole. We have to dine with a friend, and I must close.

      Yours affectionately,

      j.o.c.

Letter 8.

       Table of Contents

      Bristol.

      Dear Charley:—

      You have so often expressed a desire to see the fine cathedral churches and abbeys of the old world, that I shall not apologize for giving you an account of them; and as they are more in my way, I shall take them into my hands, and let the lads write you about other things. The next visit we took, after I wrote you last, was to the cathedral. This is of great antiquity. In 1148, a monastery was dedicated to St. Augustine. This good man sent one Jordan as a missionary in 603, and here he labored faithfully and died. It seems, I think, well sustained that the venerable Austin himself preached here, and that his celebrated conference with the British clergy took place on College Green; and it is thought that the cathedral was built on its site to commemorate the event. The vicinity of the church is pleasing. The Fitzhardings, the founders of the Berkeley family, began the foundation of the abbey in 1140, and it was endowed and dedicated in 1148. The tomb of Sir Robert, the founder, lies at the east of the door, and is enclosed with rails. Some of the buildings connected with the church are of great antiquity, and are probably quite as old as the body of the cathedral. A gateway leading to the cloisters and chapter-house is plainly Saxon, and is regarded as the finest Saxon archway in England. The western part of the cathedral was demolished by Henry VIII. The eastern part, which remains, has a fine Gothic choir. This was created a bishop's see by Henry VIII. It is interesting to think that Secker, Butler, and Newton have all been bishops of this diocese, and Warburton, who wrote the Divine Legation of Moses, was once Dean of Bristol. The immortal Butler, who wrote the Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, lies buried here, and his tombstone is on the south aisle, at the entrance of the choir. A splendid monument has been erected to his memory, with the following inscription from the pen of Robert Southey, himself a Bristolian:—

      Sacred

       to the Memory of

       JOSEPH BUTLER, D.C.L.,

       twelve years Bishop of this Diocese,

       afterwards of Durham, whose mortal remains

       are here deposited. Others had established

       the historical and prophetical grounds of the

       Christian Religion, and that true testimony of Truth

       which is found in its perfect adaptation to the heart

       of man. It was reserved for him to develop its

       analogy to the constitution and course of Nature;

       and laying his strong foundations

       in the depth of that great argument,

       there to construct another and

       irrefragable proof; thus rendering

       Philosophy subservient

       to Faith, and finding

       in outward and

       visible things

       the type and evidence of those within the veil.

       Born, A.D. 1693. Died, 1752.

      We noticed a very fine monument by Bacon to the memory of Mrs. Draper, said to have been the Eliza of Sterne. We hastened to find the world-renowned tomb of Mrs. Mason, and to read the lines on marble of that inimitable epitaph, which has acquired a wider circulation than any other in the world. The lines were written by her husband, the Rev. William Mason.

      "Take, holy earth, all that my soul holds dear;

       Take that best gift which Heaven so lately gave.

       To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care

       Her faded form; she bowed to taste the wave,

       And died. Does youth, does beauty read the line?

       Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm?

       Speak, dead Maria; breathe a strain divine;

       E'en from the grave thou shalt have power to charm.

       Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee;

       Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move;

       And if so fair, from vanity as free,

       As firm in friendship, and as fond in love—

       Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die,

       (Twas e'en to thee,) yet, the dread path once trod,

       Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high,

       And bids the pure in heart behold their God."

      In the cloisters we saw the tomb of Bird the artist, a royal academician, and a native of Bristol. We were much interested with a noble bust of Robert Southey, the poet, which has just been erected in the north aisle. It stands on an octangular pedestal of gray marble, with Gothic panels. The bust is of the most exquisitely beautiful marble. The inscription is in German text.

Robert Southey,

       Table of Contents

      Born in Bristol,

      October 4, 1774;

       Table of Contents

      Died at Reswick,

      March 21, 1843.

       Table of Contents

СКАЧАТЬ