UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 139 



that one small article of female dress should 

 cost such accumulated labour. 



We then walked to the cathedral. What a 

 magnificent building, mamma ! the twelfth part 

 of a mile in length, and more than two hundred 

 feet high. As to the interior, it is grand beyond 

 any thing I can attempt to describe, but you 

 must remember it too well to make that neces- 

 sary. 



I will mention, however, a curious circum- 

 stance that my uncle told me as we were passing 

 among the monstrous pillars of the nave : an 

 attempt was made not very long ago to reduce 

 them in size, or to chisel them into cluster 

 columns ; but they were found to be only hollow 

 cases of masonry filled with loose stones. I 

 could not help feeling glad that it had failed, for 

 the contrast of their heavy, solid appearance, 

 with the light elegance of the cloisters, I think 

 improves each other. The choir is beautiful ; 

 and often as my aunt and uncle had seen them, 

 they could not help stopping to admire the 

 carved work and tracery of the stalls. 



This fine cathedral was begun in the eleventh 

 century, the cloisters were added in the four- 

 teenth, and the west front was not completed till 

 the fifteenth. My uncle took the opportunity of 

 shewing me the different styles of Gothic archi- 

 tecture belonging to those periods ; and on our 

 road home, he explained the principal dis- 



