nd with the architecture of Normandy,
which was developed by a kindred race,--the successors of Rollo and his
rovers, who settled in that country at an earlier date. There can be
little doubt that the Romanesque architecture which prevailed in the
north of Europe found its way at a comparatively late date into
Scandinavia. The Norman form of that style would naturally follow the
same course amongst the kindred races in Norway and Denmark, just as it
did in England and Scotland, and from Norway it would be transplanted
into Scotland."[206] Kirkwall Cathedral, begun in 1137, was carried on
with great expedition, unlike Glasgow Cathedral, which took so long in
completion that it gave rise to a proverb, "Like St. Mungo's work, it
will never be finished." The Orcadians did their work nobly, and when a
difficulty arose as to funds, it was overcome by allowing the
proprietors of land in Orkney to redeem their property by a single
payment of a sum per acre, paid at once, instead of according to the
usual practice, on each succession.[207] Help was received from far and
wide, and the building was so liberally sped by the oblations of a past
age, that all Christendom was popularly said to have paid tribute for
its erection;[208] but the spirit of religion must have been fervid in
the islands themselves. The earl who founded the cathedral died after a
pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem. "He had begun his High Church on no
mean scale, and it was afterwards greatly enlarged in length. To this
circumstance, together with its severe simplicity, its narrowness, its
height, and the multiplicity of its parts, must be ascribed the most
striking characteristic of the pile--its apparent vastness."[209] It has
been doubted if either York or Lincoln gives the _idea_ of greater
internal length, though Kirkwall measures less by half than the smaller
of these minsters. As pointed out by the latest authorities on the
cathedral, its western doorways recall the portals of the cathedrals of
France rather than those of England; its interior gives the impression
of great size, arising from the height and length of the building as
compared with its width; the exterior presents at a glance the changes
which have taken place in it, and the layers and masses of different
coloured stones tell their own tale; the oldest work (comprising several
periods) is constructed with dark slaty stone, having red freestone
dressings; the Norman work is observed in the tran