268 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SEALER 



especially pleased with the grand simplicity of this great shrine and with the 

 rich-toned lancet windows. The beadle showered information upon our 

 sated ears and strove hard to earn his fee. When at last N. asked him to open 

 the door, he answered, " I will do so with pleasure ; I have been shut up in 

 this cathedral since nine o'clock this morning." Alas, it was little better 

 than a jail to him. Nat was eager to get to the old walls of the city. There 

 he fought over the Wars of the Roses; in imagination joined the warriors 

 who struggled across the ditch and scaled the inner defences. He called upon 

 the Emperor Severus in his palace, talked with Constantine and Caracalla. 

 Altogether he voted York a place worth seeing. 



At Whitby Mr. Shaler had the companionship of his friend Tawney, and to- 

 gether they did some splendid geologizing, filling boxes and the empty corners 

 of my trunks with fossils. They also poked fun at one another about the cus- 

 toms of their respective countries. On the beach the boys and girls played 

 almost in a state of nature; the women wore scant gowns, but the men 

 appeared in the uniform of Eden. The whole scene, N. said, reminded him 

 in its indecency of Naples. In revenge, Tawney picked out a bespectacled, 

 short-skirted, heavily shod dame, striding along with a cane in her hand, 

 as a typical strong-minded American woman. The dispute growing warm, 

 I was sent to follow this formidable creature and find out what part of the 

 world she came from. Happily she sat down on the sand, thus giving her 

 pursuer a chance to catch up, and after a few minutes' talk it was possible 

 to relieve Mr. Shaler's tension of mind by the statement that she was to 

 the manner born. 



At Durham we climbed the hill under a really hot sun and reached the 

 cathedral tired and thirsty : but the solemn stillness and the coolness within 

 made the pain seem small and the pleasure infinite. The massive pillars 

 appealed to Nat's love of all that is strong ; indeed he seemed more sensitive 

 than usual to the beauty of the edifice, although, if he were an architect by 

 profession, he could not take more interest in the structure and ornamenta- 

 tion of these great ecclesiastical buildings. Since the service was about to 

 begin, fearing that the magnificent ritual would be spoiled in the manner we 

 had sometimes heard by a sing-song delivery, he suggested that we go out- 

 side. Without, we looked for the swans that one sees in the pictures of the 

 great cathedral, and, behold, there they were, those arched-necked creatures 

 showing plain upon the dark waters of the river. As usual at such places, 

 we sat on a tombstone and, besides watching the swans, watched the pious 

 folk that came to the vesper service, and soon the music floated out upon 

 the stillness. When it ceased, N. beckoned to a small boy hovering near with 



