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of trefoil arches, the whole forming perhaps the most 

 beautiful specimen of early English architecture in 

 Great Britain. This transept is 264 feet in length, and 

 104 feet in breadth. The choir on both north and south 

 sides is divided into two parts by projections in the 

 form of small transepts, which rise above the aisles, 

 and are pierced by long narrow windows on all their 

 sides. At the east end is the Great Window or " Wall 

 of Glass," consisting of nine lights, and measuring 77 

 feet in height by 32 feet in width. It is the largest 

 window in England, perhaps in the world. 



Time precludes me from enlarging on the beauty and 

 massive grandeur of this celebrated fane. I have seen 

 several remarkable churches : Notre-Dame, at Paris — 

 the cathedral and churches of Eouen — Saint e-Gudule, 

 at Brussels; the magnificent old cathedral at Antwerp; 

 the cathedral at Ely, with its gorgeous stained glass 

 windows and jewel-inlaid reredos ; historic St. Pauls ; 

 matchless Westminster Abbey, but with the exception 

 of the latter, I visited no medieval temple of worship, 

 where I cared to linger longer than in the Minster of 

 York. 



After the Minster, probably the most curious objects 

 to be viewed in York, are the well preserved ruins of 

 the beautiful St. Mary's Abbey, in and round the 

 elegantly kept gardens of the Philosophical Society — 

 adjacent to the handsome new bridge over the Ouse — 

 Lendal Bridge. The Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery, 

 once in point of wealth and influence, the most impor- 

 tant in the North of England, was founded in 1078, 

 by Stephen, a monk of Whitby. Six other monasteries 

 were attached to it. The Lord Abbot, with he of the 

 Abbey of Selby, were the only mitred abbots north of 

 the Trent, who by virtue of their rank were summoned 

 as Lords of Parliament. The first Priory was destroyed 

 by fire and its reconstruction which lasted twenty-four 

 years, began in 1270 : the present ruins are the remains 

 of this building ; at the Eeformation it shared the fate 



