[Illustration: "THE THREE LADIES"]
In those days chimney sweepers employed a boy to climb up the inside of
the chimneys and sweep the parts that could not be reached with their
brush from below, the method of screwing one stale to the end of another
and reaching the top in that way being then unknown. These boys were
often cruelly treated, and had even been known to be suffocated in the
chimney. The nature of their occupation rendered them very daring, and
for this reason the Dean employed one of them to remove the rest of the
damaged figures, a service which he satisfactorily performed at no small
risk both to himself and others.
There is a very fine view in the interior of the cathedral looking from
west to east, which extends to a distance of 370 feet, and of which Sir
Gilbert Scott, the great ecclesiastical architect, who was born in 1811,
has written, "I always hold this work to be almost absolute perfection
in design and detail"; another great authority said that when he saw it
his impressions were like those described by John Milton in his "Il
Penseroso":
Let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale,
And love the high embossed roof,
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim, religious light:
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voiced quire below.
Pages:
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716