7_.
My first letter was closed after service at York Cathedral. As soon as
I had posted it, I walked sedately twice round the cathedral, and then
I found the sexton at the door, who commiserating me of my former vain
applications, and having the hope of lucre before his eyes, let me
in. I saw the burnt part, which looks not melancholy but
unfinished. Every bit of wood is carried away clean, with scarcely a
smoke-daub to mark where it has been: the building looks as if the
walls were just prepared for a roof, but there are some deep dints in
the pavement, shewing where large masses have fallen. The lower parts
of some of the columns (to the height of 8 or 10 feet) are much scaled
and cracked. The windows are scarcely touched. I also refreshed my
memory of the chapter-house, which is most beautiful, and which has
much of its old gilding reasonably bright, and some of its old paint
quite conspicuous. And I looked again at the old crypt with its late
Norman work, and at the still older crypt of the pre-existing church.
* * * * *
1841
"The routine work of the Observatory in its several departments was
carried on steadily during this year.
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