• CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 163 



" In the month of March, 1833, a printed address dnd a respectful 

 letter, was sent to forty-fouriprelaies, and deans and chapters; to 

 which the author received only six replies ! Two bishops offered to 

 take in the work, two others were willing to subscribe for the 

 cathedrals, over which they presided ; only one chapter, (Norwich) 

 requested to possess the whole series ; and another offered every 

 assistance to the author, towards promoting a complete history and 

 illustration of its own church." Such a chilling, dreary prospect, 

 was not calculated to tempt the author further in his Cathedral 

 expedition. 



"When the education, associations, and number of wealthy clergy- 

 men in the kingdom are considered, particularly of those connected 

 with, and deriving handsome incomes from the cathedrals, it might 

 be fairly presumed that from three to five hundred of them would 

 be desirous to possess a literary and graphic work expressly devoted 

 to elucidate the histories, and illustrate the architecture of those 

 edifices ; it is however asserted that not more than one hundred of 

 the clergy are purchasers of this publication, and that its real friends 

 and admirers are persons of moderate incomes, who are mostly pro- 

 fessional gentlemen and amateurs, and some ladies." 



The Cathedral of Worcester, the author affirms, has suffered as 

 much by injudicious restorations and repairs, as by the injuries re- 

 sulting from time and warfare. Many parts of its walls, being 

 constructed with a bad material, a loose red sand^stone, have crum- 

 bled and become ruinous ; the central tower has been chipped, and 

 in part newly faced, whilst its once fine parapet and open pinnacles 

 have been reconstructed, without much regard to the original work- 

 manship. The interior is wofully disfigured by white and yellow 

 washing. 



Our readers will perceive that this is not a consecutive narrative- 

 — it is related in a desultory manner as the facts presented them- 

 selves, or rather, we should say, as we chanced to light upon them 

 on indiscriminately turning over the pages of the prefatory essay : 

 some of them, however, are so very cogent, and others, indeed most 

 of them, so very important, that we could not refrain from extract- 

 ing and commenting as we proceeded, without regarding order and 

 method with the strictness usually required. In this manner, there- 

 fore, we shall now continue. ]\Ir. Britton's comparison of the ad*. 

 vantages of other liberal professions above those of the author, is 

 drawn with all the force and bitterness of truth, and assimilates 

 with the notions of the elegant and eloquent E. L. Bulwer, who, in 

 his interesting work, *' England and the English," says on this sub- 

 ject — " Literary men have not with us any fixed and settled posi- 

 tion as men of letters. In the great game of honours none fall to 

 their share. We may say truly, with a certain political economist, — 

 ' We pay best, 1. Those who destroy us — generals ; 2nd. Those who 

 cheat us — Politicians and quacks ; 3rd. Those who amuse us — singers 

 and musicians ; and, last of all — those who instruct us.' " " All the 

 officers of state, and most public servants," he observes^ " after a 



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