, and saw some elaborate monuments in
the chancel beyond; but the doors of the screen are kept locked, so that
the vergers may raise a revenue by showing strangers through the richest
part of the cathedral. By and by one of these vergers came through the
screen with a gentleman and lady whom he was taking around, and we joined
ourselves to the party. He showed us into the cloisters, which had long
been neglected and ruinous, until the time of Bishop Dennison, the last
prelate, who has been but a few years dead. This bishop has repaired and
restored the cloisters in faithful adherence to the original plan; and
they now form a most delightful walk about a pleasant and verdant
enclosure, in the center of which sleeps good Bishop Dennison, with a wife
on either side of him, all three beneath broad flat stones.

Most cloisters are darksome and grim; but these have a broad paved walk
beneath the vista of arches, and are light, airy, and cheerful; and from
one corner you can get the best possible view of the whole height and
beautiful proportion of the cathedral spire. On one side of this
cloistered walk seems to be the length of the nave of the cathedral. There
is a square of four such sides; and of places for meditation, grave, yet
not too somber, it seemed to me one of the best. While we stayed there, a
jackdaw was walking to and fro across the grassy enclosure, and haunting
around the good bishop's grave. He was clad in black, and looked like a
feathered ecclesiastic; but I know not whether it were Bishop Dennison's
ghost or that of some old monk.

On one side of the cloisters, and contiguous to the main body of the
cathedral, stands the chapterhouse. Bishop Dennison had it much at heart
to repair this part of the holy edifice; and, if I mistake not, did begin
the work; for it had been long ruinous, and in Cromwell's time his
dragoons stationed their horses there. Little progress, however, had been
made in the repairs when the bishop died; and it was decided to restore
the building in his honor, and by way of monument to him. The repairs are
now nearly completed; and the interior of this chapter-house gave me the
first idea, anywise adequate, of the splendor of these Gothic church
edifices. The roof is sustained by one great central pillar of polished
marble--small pillars clustered about a great central column, which rises
to the ceiling, and there gushes out with various beauty, that overflows
all the walls; as if the fl