206

LETTER XLV.

York City and Minster.-Journey to Lincoln.-Travellers imposed upon.-Innkeepers. Ferry over the Trent.-Lincoln.-Great Tom.-Newark.-Alconbury Hill.

Wednesday.

FROM Borough-Bridge, which is a little town full of good inns, we took chaise in the morning for York. The road was a straight line over a dead flat; the houses which we passed of red brick, roofed with red tiles, uglier than common cottages, and not promising more comfort within. York is one of the few English cities with the name of which foreigners are familiar. I was disappointed that its appearance in the distance was not finer, we saw its

huge cathedral rising over the level,-but that was all; and I found that the second city in England was as little imposing as the metropolis upon a first view. We drove under an old gate-way and up a narrow street, ordered dinner at the inn, and set out to see the cathedral, here called the minster.

Though I had seen the cathedral churches of Exeter, Salisbury, Westminster, and Worcester, my expectations were exceeded here; for though on the outside something, I know not what, is wanting, the interior surpasses any thing to be seen elsewhere. It is in magnitude that York minster is unrivalled; it is of the best age of Gothic, and in admirable repair :-this praise must be given to the English heretics, that they preserve these monuments of magnificent piety with a proper care, and do not suffer them to be disfigured by the barbarism of modern times. Here indeed we felt the full effect of this wonderful architecture, in which all the parts are

highly ornamented, yet the multiplicity of ornaments contributes to one great impression. We ascended the tower by such a wearying round of steps that I was compelled to judge more respectfully of its height, than we had done when beholding it from below. The day was hazy; we saw however sufficiently far into a flat country; and the city, and the body of the immense building below us with its towers and turrets, its buttresses and battlements, were objects far more impressive than any distant view.

Having satisfied, our curiosity here, we strolled in search of other objects, saw the castle, which is converted into a prison, and found our way to a public walk beside the river Ouse, a sluggish and muddy stream, which, however, as it is navigable, the people of York would be loth to exchange for one of the wild Cumberland rivers which we could not but remember with regret. There is a bridge over it of remarkable architecture, whose irregular

arches with the old houses adjoining form a highly picturesque pile. While we were looking at it, we heard some one from the ships sing out, "There he goes!" and this was repeated from vessel to vessel, and from shore to shore, chiefly by boys and children, in a regular tone, and at regular intervals, almost like minute guns. It was some time before we paid any attention to this; but at last it was repeated so often that it forced itself upon our notice, and we inquired of a woman, whose little girl was joining in the cry, what it meant. She told us it was a man, then crossing at the ferry, whom the children always called after in this way :-she could give no further account, and did not know that he had done any thing to provoke it. He was a man in years, and of decent appearance. It is possible that he may have committed some offence which drew upon him the public notice,-but it is equally possible that this was begun in sport; and if so, as the woman indeed

understood it to be, it is one of the strangest instances of popular persecution I ever witnessed. Age and deformity, I may here remark, are always objects of ridicule in England; it is disgraceful to the nation to see how the rabble boys are permitted to torment a poor idiot, if they find one in the streets.

Thursday.

At five in the morning we left York. I could not but admire the punctuality of the old coachman. He was on his box, we on the roof,-every thing ready to start. One church clock struck,-another followed,-house clocks all around us," All but the minster," said the old man,-for the minster was his signal. that began with its finer tone,-and before the first quarter had ended, crack went his whip and we were off. It was a cloudy morning, we passed through Tadcaster and a few smaller places not worth naming, because not worth remembering, till we

Presently