CHAPTER III.

REMARKABLE OLD HOUSES STILL EXTANT.

"How reverend is the face of this tall pile,

Whose ancient pillars rear their marble head
To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof,

By its own weight made steadfast and immoveable,
Looking tranquillity!"

MOURNING Bride.

THE CATHEDRAL.

WITH the Cathedrals of our country are associated the names of the earliest votaries and first patrons of our national literature. In them we have evidences of the skill, the taste, and the public spirit of our ancestors, no less than of their piety;—the ecclesiastical buildings of an early period exhibiting a splendour, size, and fitness of proportion unequalled by more recent structures. The magnificence of their architecture,—the number and richness of the shrines, tombs, and chapels,—the elegance of design and beauty of workmanship by which they were distinguished, carries back the mind and memory to the days when the genius of architecture was fostered

by the spirit of religion. Majestic when perfect, in ruin they induce the gazer to moralize with Scott:

"When yonder broken arch was whole,
'Twas there was dealt the weekly dole;
And where yon mould'ring columns nod,
The abbey sent the hymn to God.
So fleets the world's uncertain span;
Nor zeal for God nor love for man,
Gives mortal monuments a date

Beyond the power of time and fate."

Situated in a large and populous city, the Cathedral of St. Mungo has the appearance of the most sequestered solitude. High walls divide it from the buildings of the city on one side; on the other it is bounded by a ravine, through the depth of which murmurs a wandering rivulet, adding by its rushing noise to the imposing solemnity of the scene. On the opposite side of the ravine rises a steep bank, covered, as far as the eye can reach, with newly erected sepulchral monuments, and bordered with fir trees closely planted, whose dusky shade extends itself over the cemetery with an appropriate and gloomy effect.

The cemetery itself is of a striking and peculiar character; for though in reality extensive, it is small in proportion to the number of inhabitants who are interred within it, and whose graves are almost all covered with tombstones. There is, therefore, no room for the long rank grass, which in the ordinary case, partially clothes the surface in those retreats," where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." The broad flat monumental stones are placed so close to each other, that the precincts appear to be flagged with them, and

though roofed only by the heavens, resemble the floor of an old English Church, where the pavement is covered with sepulchral inscriptions. The contents of these sad records of mortality, the vain sorrows which they record, the stern lessons which they teach of the nothingness of humanity, the extent of ground which they so closely cover, and their uniform and melancholy tenor remind us of the roll of the prophet, which was "written within and without, and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and wo.'

The Cathedral itself corresponding in impressive majesty with these accompaniments, never fails to inspire the stranger with awe and admiration. Its lofty square tower meets the eye of the traveller in various approaches to the ancient city, and conjures up a host of names and events that have made a figure in history during the long lapse of centuries. Of the nave from whatever point contemplated, laterally or longitudinally, grandeur of design and elaborate execution are the leading characteristics. This is the oldest part of the edifice, and was built by Bishop Achaius in 1136. To enter into minute detail of its architectural beauties were impossible in our narrow compass. The general effect is all that we can presume to describe; and of this, the reader will have little difficulty in forming a just estimate of the magnificence that reigns in this venerable temple of our

* Rob Roy.

+ For several of the curious epitaphs to be seen in the Cathedral church-yard, vide Appendix.

ancestors.

There is one feature particularly deserving of notice as a boundary line between different epochs in ecclesiastical architecture; namely, the points where the labours of successive bishops ended and commenced.

The whole fabric is externally divided on both sides into compartments, by buttresses of equal dimensions, between which are placed windows in the pointed style, all somewhat dissimilar in the ornaments. This succession of windows is interrupted by the transepts directly under the great tower in the centre of the church. The north and south windows in the transepts are 40 by 22 feet, divided with mullions and tracery. Above the first range of windows the wall terminates in a battlement, within which springs the lowest roof, till it meets the second or inner wall, which rises from thence for a number of feet. This, in like manner, is divided into compartments by small square projections, between each of which are placed three narrow windows in the pointed style, directly above each of those in the first storey. It then terminates in the same manner as the lower wall, and is capped with a leaden roof.

The chapter-house was in the north cross of the Cathedral, and had a communication with the nave by a vaulted entry. The south cross was never completed, and was till lately used as a burying-place for the clergy of the city. The architecture of it appears to have been finer than that of the rest of the building, and is supposed to be of no older date than the year 1500. Its arched roof is supported by columns adjoining to the outer walls.

There is also a row of pillars in the centre, and the capitals of the whole are highly ornamented with figures and flowers. The area of its top is formed into an ornamented piece of garden ground.

The consistorial house in which the bishops held their ecclesiastical courts, projects from the south-west corner of the Cathedral. Between this and the tower was the ancient entrance, by a large magnificent door, which is now shut up. The usual entry at present is on the south, which leads immediately into the choir.

The appearance of the choir is very grand and impressive. Majestic columns decorated with monumental tablets of marble and other memorials of the dead, divide the space and support the roof.

The vaulted cemetery is situated immediately beneath the nave. It is supported by 65 clustered pillars, exceedingly strong and massive; and, by their position and the smallness of the windows, rendering the interior dark and gloomy.

Such buildings as the Cathedral of Glasgow are eminently suggestive. The historian must class them as records of the onward career of national history,the philosopher sees in them signs and tokens, not to be mistaken, of the progress of human improvement,— the antiquary lingers over the outward and tangible evidences of old times, old feelings, quaint customs and mode of life, as relics of the living moving throng, who, having gone before us and our train, are, in the dim vista of antiquity, invested with an interest peculiarly