s, are too technical to be available for quotation
here, but the indirect allusions to customs and manners of the past,
makes many a paragraph pleasant reading, although the whole document
may refer to merely the working details of administration. The
statute, dated A.D. 1319, relating to the rights of the boy
bishop, is one of the few that have more than local interest.

[Illustration: HANGING PARAPET ON THE EAST WALL OF THE CLOSE.]

=The Close= is certainly a fit setting for the jewel it surrounds, and
with full remembrance of the superb position of Durham, the
picturesque eminence of Lincoln, the dignity that marks the isolated
hill whereon Ely towers over the fens around it, the harmonious
environment of Wells, and many another site made memorable by its
cathedral, Salisbury is, in its own way, not less beautiful. The quiet
tranquillity of the large lawn, the half-hidden houses that nestle
among its trees, the sense of being completely shut off from the
work-a-day world, impress one as much as the apparent vastness of the
area thus devoted to the cathedral. Leland, in his "Itinerary," was
equally struck with its beauty, although, as the frontispiece shows,
the surroundings were very different before Wyatt's exploits, and
probably in Leland's time preserved still more of their mediaeval
aspect. He says: "The great and large embatelid waulle of the palace
having 3 gates to entre into it thus namyd: the close gate as
principale by north ynto the town, Saint Anne's gate by est, and
Harnham gate by south toward Harham bridge. The close wall was never
ful finished as in one place evidently apperith I redde that in Bishop
Rogers days as I remembere a convention was between him and the Canons
of Saresbyri de Muro clausi."

Whether the builders of our great churches were conscious of the
beauty of their surroundings, or whether no little of that loveliness
is but the slow result of centuries of care and the accident of
natural growth, need not be discussed. That to an American especially
this peculiar beauty tells with great force we can readily believe,
and Mrs. Van Rensselaer, whose paper on Salisbury has been quoted
before in this book, expresses admirably the feeling, which, whether
it be true or only imaginary, is no doubt the impression of such a
place as the Close of Salisbury on many an educated visitor.
"Salisbury," she writes, "is the very type and picture of the Church
of the Prince of Peace. Nowhere else do