MELLOW ENGLAND. 161 



such a mob of shops and buildings ; yet the glimpses 

 he does get here and there through the opening made 

 by some street, when passing in its vicinity, are very 

 striking and suggestive ; the thin veil of smoke, which 

 is here as constant and uniform as the atmosphere 

 itself, wrapping it about with the enchantment of time 

 and distance. 



The interior I found even more impressive than the 

 exterior, perhaps because I was unprepared for it. I 

 had become used to imposing exteriors at home, and 

 did not reflect that in a structure like this I should see 

 an interior also, and that here alone the soul of the 

 building would be fully revealed. It was Miltonic in 

 the best sense ; it was like the mightiest organ music 

 put into form. Such depths, such solemn vastness, 

 such gulfs and abysses of architectural space, the rich, 

 mellow light, the haze outside becoming a mysterious, 

 hallowing presence within, quite mastered me, and I 

 sat down upon a seat, feeling my first genuine cathe- 

 dral intoxication. As it was really an intoxication, a 

 sense of majesty and power quite overwhelming in my 

 then uncloyed condition, I speak of it the more freely. 

 My companions rushed about as if each one had had a 

 search-warrant in his pocket : but I was content to un- 

 cover my head and drop into a seat, and busy my mind 

 with some simple object near at hand, while the sub- 

 limity that soared about me stole into my soul, and 

 possessed it. My sensation was like that imparted by 

 suddenly reaching a great altitude ; there was a sort of 



ii 



