You do not experience that instantaneous
change, as of a curtain being drawn excluding the light and
air of day and of being shut in, which you have on entering
other religious houses. This is due, first, to the vast size
of the interior, the immense length of the nave, and the
unobstructed view one has inside owing to the removal by the
"vandal" Wyatt of the old ponderous stone screen--an act for
which I bless while all others curse his memory; secondly, to
the comparatively small amount of stained glass there is to
intercept the light. So graceful and beautiful is the
interior that it can bear the light, and light suits it best,
just as a twilight best suits Exeter and Winchester and other
cathedrals with heavy sculptured roofs. One marvels at a
building so vast in size which yet produces the effect of a
palace in fairyland, or of a cathedral not built with hands
but brought into existence by a miracle.
I began to think it not safe to stay in that place too long
lest it should compel me to stay there always or cause me to
feel dissatisfied and homesick when away.
But the interior of itself would never have won me, as I had
not expected to be won by any building made by man; and from
the inside I would pass out only to find a fresh charm in that
part where Nature had come more to man's aid.
Walking on the cathedral green one morning, glancing from time
to time at the vast building and its various delicate shades
of colour, I asked myself why I kept my eyes as if on purpose
away from it most of the time, now on the trees, then on the
turf, and again on some one walking there--why, in fact, I
allowed myself only an occasional glance at the object I was
there solely to look at.
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