by Jacob Abbott
CHAPTER IX.
ST. PAUL'S.
Mr. George and Rollo, just before they reached St. Paul's, had a veryunexpected addition made to their party. The person was no other thanRollo's mother.
Rollo's father and mother had come from Paris to London the day before,though Rollo had not expected them so soon as this. It might have beensupposed that in making the tour they would keep in company with Mr.George and Rollo all the time; but this was not the plan which theyadopted. Mr. Holiday's health was still quite feeble, and he wished totravel in a very quiet and easy manner. Mr. George and Rollo, on theother hand, were full of life and spirits. They wished to go everywhere, and to see every thing, and had very little fear of eitherfatigue or exposure.
"It will be better, therefore," said Mr. Holiday, "that we should actindependently of each other. You may go your way, and we will go ours.We shall meet occasionally, and then you can relate us your adventures."
In accordance with this plan, Rollo's father and mother remained inParis a few days after Mr. George and Rollo had left that city; and nowthey had just arrived in London. Jane came with them. And now ithappened, by a very remarkable coincidence, that Mr. George and Rollomet them in St. Paul's Churchyard when they were going to visit thecathedral.
St. Paul's Churchyard is a street. It surrounds the yard in which St.Paul's stands, and is bordered on the outer side by ranges ofmagnificent shops and houses. Thus the street has buildings on one side,and the monstrous iron palisade which forms the enclosure of St. Paul'son the other, all around it.
The yard in which St. Paul's stands is in general of an oval form,though not regularly so. One side curves a great deal, while the otherside is nearly straight. The street, of course, corresponds with theoutline of the yard, being nearly straight on one side of the church,and quite of a crescent form on the other--being shaped thus somewhatlike a bow. They call the curved side of the street the Bow, and thestraight side the String. The Bow is on the south side of the church,and the String is on the north side.
Some of the most splendid shops in London are situated in this street,particularly in the part of it called the String. There are shops forthe sale of books and engravings, of millinery of all kinds, of lacesand embroideries of every sort, of caps and bonnets, and of silver plateand jewelry. It seems a little strange to the visitor to see so great adisplay of such vanities as these in a street called a Churchyard; butthere are a great many such apparent inconsistencies between the namesand uses of the streets in London.
It was in St. Paul's Churchyard that Rollo met his mother. The cab whichhe and his uncle were in had stopped opposite the great gate which ledto the church. Rollo stepped out first; and while he was waiting for hisuncle George, he saw his mother just coming out of one of the shops onthe other side.
"Why, uncle George!" said he; "there's mother!"
So saying, he ran across the street to meet his mother.
Mrs. Holiday was overjoyed to see Rollo coming; so was Jennie, who wassitting all the time in the carriage with Mr. Holiday. After someconversation on other subjects, Rollo told his mother that he and Mr.George were going to see St. Paul's.
"_I_ might go too," said his mother.
"Yes, mother!" said Rollo, eagerly. "Do, mother!"
"I _would_ go," said Mr. Holiday. "It will be a very good opportunityfor you--the best you will have, in fact; for I shall not be able to goup so many stairs myself. Jennie can go home with me."
Jennie did not like this part of the proposal, but seemed very desirousto go with her mother.
"Why, Jennie!" said her mother. "I do not think you could climb so high.I don't think you know how high it is."
"Ah, yes, mother," said Rollo, "she can climb very well; besides, I canhelp her if she gets tired."
It was finally agreed that Jennie should go too; and so the whole party,excepting Mr. Holiday, walked across the street and began to ascend thegreat flight of circular steps which led to the door in the northtransept of the church, that being the door at which strangers andvisitors are usually admitted.
On entering the church, they found themselves ushered into an interiorso vast in extent, and so lofty in height, as to overwhelm them withwonder. They walked along over the smooth stone pavement towards thecentre of the cross, and there stood and looked up into the dome, whichswelled in a vast concave far up over their heads, like a sky of stone.The ceiling of the dome was divided into compartments, which werecovered with paintings. These paintings had become a good deal faded anddecayed; and on one side of the dome, nearly two hundred feet abovewhere the party was standing, there was a platform hanging in the air,with workmen and artists upon it repainting the figures. From the placewhere he now stood, however, Rollo could only see the under side of thisplatform and some of the ropes by which it was suspended.
"Do you see that gallery," said Mr. George to Rollo, pointing upwards,"which runs all around just under the dome?"
"I see a small railing, or balustrade," said Mrs. Holiday.
"There is a gallery there," said Mr. George, "eight or ten feet wide,though we do not see the width of it very distinctly here. And therailing, or balustrade, which looks so small here, we shall find is notvery small when we come to get up to it."
"Can we get up there?" said Mrs. Holiday.
"Yes," replied Mr. George. "That must be the celebrated whisperinggallery."
"How do you know?" asked Rollo.
"I have read descriptions of it in books," said Mr. George. "They saidthat the whispering gallery was a gallery passing entirely around thecentre of the church, over the choir, and just under the dome; and sothat must be it. All that is the dome that rises above it."
"Let us go up there, then," said Rollo.
The party walked about the floor of the church a few minutes longer,though they found but little to interest them in what they saw exceptthe vastness of the enclosed interior and the loftiness of the columnsand walls. There were several colossal monuments standing here andthere; but in general the church had a somewhat empty and nakedappearance. The immense magnitude, however, of the spaces which theparty traversed, and the lofty heights of the columns, and arches, andceilings which they looked up to above, filled them with wonder.
At length, near the foot of a staircase, in a sort of corner, they founda man in a little office, whose business it was to sell to visitorstickets of admission, to enable them to view such parts of the church,especially those situated in the upper regions of it, as it would not beproper to leave entirely open to the public. For these places attendantsare required, to guard the premises from injury, as well as to show thevisitors the way they are to go and to explain to them what they see;and for this a fee is charged, according in tariff, which is set down inthe guide books thus:----
COST OF ADMISSION.
_s. d._
Whispering, Stone, and Golden Galleries, 0 6
Ball, 1 6
Library, Great Bell, Geometrical Staircase, and Model Room, 0 6
Clock, 0 2
Crypt and Nelson's Monument, 0 6 ---- 3 2
Mr. George knew in general that this was the arrangement for showing thechurch to visitors; but he had not examined the tariff particularly toknow what the prices were which were charged for the several parts ofthe show. He did not care particularly about this, however, for he meantto see all.
Accordingly, when the party came up to the little office where the mansold the tickets, and the man asked them how much they wished to see,Mr. George turned to Mrs. Holiday, saying,--
"We wish to see all, I suppose, do we not?"
> "Yes," said Mrs. Holiday; "let us see all there is to be seen."
"Then it will be nine shillings and sixpence," said the ticket man;"three shillings and twopence each for the three. I shall not charge forthe young lady. I presume, moreover," he added, with a smile, "that shewill not wish to go up into the ball."
So Mr. George took out his purse, and Mrs. Holiday took out hers at thesame time.
"I will pay," said Mr. George.
"We will all pay," said Mrs. Holiday. "The easiest way to keep ouraccounts is for each to pay as we go."
So Mrs. Holiday, Mr. George, and Rollo paid each three shillings andtwopence, and the man gave them a variety of tickets in return.
"_Those_," said he, "are for the gallery," pointing out the tickets atthe same time as he presented them; "and _those_ are for the ball._These_ are for the crypt. You keep these till you get down stairs."
Rollo wondered what the crypt could be; but, as he considered the wholeparty as now under Mr. George's guidance, he thought he would notinquire, but wait until he should see.
There are several different staircases in St. Paul's by which one canascend to the upper portions of the edifice. Our party began immediatelyto mount by one which commenced very near to the place where they hadbought their tickets. The stairs were circular, being built in a sort ofround tower which stood in the angle of the cross.
Rollo took Jane by the hand and went before, while Mr. George and Mrs.Holiday followed.
"Round and round, round and round, higher and higher above the ground,"said Rollo to Jennie.
"Go slowly," said Mr. George, "or else you will get very tired beforeyou get to the top."
"The stairs are very easy," said Mrs. Holiday.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "they are very easy indeed."
The stairs were, indeed, very easy--the steps being very broad, and the"rise," as it is called, of each one being very small. Rollo and Jenniewent on very gayly; and, as they kept about half a turn, of thestaircase in advance, they were generally just out of sight of Mr.George and Mrs. Holiday, who followed somewhat more slowly behind.Jennie would have been afraid to have gone thus out of sight of hermother and uncle were it not that she could hear their voices all thetime close at hand, and their footsteps, also, on the stairs.
From time to time, as our party ascended, they met other parties comingdown. When there were children in these descending parties, they trippedalong very lightly in coming down; but Rollo and Jennie soon foundthemselves growing quite tired. So they stopped to rest. After stoppinga moment, Rollo's mind seemed to swing, like a pendulum, to the oppositeextreme.
"Let us run, Jennie," said he, "and then we shall get up quicker."
"No, it will tire us more to run," replied Jennie.
"But then we shall get up all the quicker," said Rollo, "and so it willnot make any difference. We may as well work hard and have it over quickas to work not so hard and have it last a great while."
"Well," said Jennie, "then let us run."
This reasoning of Rollo's was very specious and plausible, but it wasvery erroneous notwithstanding; for it is found by experience that thewhole amount of fatigue which results from doing any given piece of workis by no means the same when it is done quickly as when it is doneslowly. A horse, for example, if you allow him to jog along slowly, atthe rate of three or four miles an hour, can travel forty miles a day,for months at a time, without growing thin; but if you drive him at therate of eight miles an hour, he cannot stand more than ten miles a dayfor any long period. That is, he can do four times as much in amount,with the same degree of fatigue, if you allow him to do it slowly.
It is curious that the case is precisely the same with a steam engine. Asteamer can cross the Atlantic with a very much smaller supply of coal,if she goes slowly, than if she goes fast. One might imagine that itwould take just twice as much coal to go ten miles an hour as would berequired to go five; but in reality it takes more than four times asmuch--the higher rate of speed requiring a very disproportionateexpenditure of power.
If, therefore, you have a long way to walk, or a high ascent to climb,and are afraid that your strength may not hold out;--
Or if you have a horse to drive a long journey, and are afraid that hewill tire out before he gets to the end of it;--
Or if you have a steamer to propel, and are not sure that you have coalenough to last to the end of the voyage;--
In these, and in all similar cases, the more slowly you go, the fartherthe force you have will carry you before it becomes exhausted.
Rollo and Jennie went on running for a few minutes, as they ascended thestaircase, round and round; but their strength was soon spent by thisviolent exertion, and they sat down on the stairs entirely exhausted.And yet they had not come up very high. The whole height of this firststaircase, which the party were now ascending, was only about as muchas a house four stories high; whereas the whole height of the church, tothe very top, is equal to that of a house--if such a house there couldbe--_forty_ stories high. So that thus far they had come not one tenthpart of the way to the top.
While Rollo and Jennie were sitting on the stairs, resting from theirfatigue, they began to hear, after a time, the voices of Mr. George andMrs. Holiday, ascending.
"Are we nearly at the top?" said Rollo.
"I don't know," said Mr. George. "Stay till you get rested, and thenfollow on."
So saying, Mr. George and Mrs. Holiday passed by, ascending the stairsvery slowly, step by step, as they had begun.
Rollo and Jennie were not willing to be left behind; so they followedimmediately; and after a few more turns they found themselves, to theirgreat joy, at the top of the staircase. They came out in a largegarret-like looking room, which was over the south transept of thechurch. You can see the end of the south transept in the engraving. Itis the part which you see projecting from the main body of the church onthe right, with a circular portico leading to it. There is a similarcircular portico, with circular steps outside, at the entrance to thenorth transept, on the other side of the church, which, however, is notshown in the engraving.
ST PAUL'S.]
The party passed under a great archway which led towards the centre ofthe church, and presently they came to another long and garret-likelooking hall, or corridor, with great arches of masonry passing over itfrom one side to the other at regular intervals along its whole length,like the beams and rafters of wood in an ordinary garret. This greatvacant space was directly over one of the side aisles of the church.[D]
[D] The reader will recollect, from the description of WestminsterAbbey, that the central part of the body of the church is called the_nave_, and that the parts of each side of the nave, beyond the rangesof columns that border it on the north and on the south, are called the_aisles_, and that the aisles are not so high usually as the nave. Thelong, vacant space which our party was now traversing was directly overthe south aisle. They were coming _towards_ the spectator, in the viewof the church represented in the engraving. You see two towers in thefront of the building shown in the engraving. The one on the right handis on the south, and is called the clock tower. The other tower, whichis on the north, is called the belfry. The party were coming along overthe south aisle and south transept towards this south tower. If you readthis explanation attentively, comparing it with the engraving, andcompare the rest of the description with the engraving, you will be ableto follow the party exactly through the whole of their ascent.
"What a monstrous long garret!" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "and there is something very curious about thisgarret, as you call it, which I will explain to you some other time."
Rollo was very willing to have this explanation postponed; for hisattention was just now attracted by some curious-looking tools,consisting of axes, hammers, and saws, which were arranged in a verysymmetrical manner, in a sort of circle, on the wall near him. Therewere two or three men in this part of the building, and one of them cameforward to show this party which way the
y were to go. Rollo asked thisman what these tools were for. He said they were to be used in case offire.
The tools were very antique and venerable in their form, and looked asif they might have been hanging where they were untouched for centuries.
"Yes," said Rollo; "and there are some buckets, too, for the samepurpose."
So saying, he pointed to a row of buckets which he saw hanging along thewall on the other side.
"Yes," said Jennie; "and there is a little fire engine."
The man who had undertaken to guide them now led the way, and the partyfollowed him, till they came to the clock tower, which is the one thatis seen in the engraving in the front of the building, towards theright. Then he conducted them, after passing through various galleriesand chambers, to a large and handsome room, with a table and some chairsin the middle of it, and carved bookcases filled with veryancient-looking books all round the sides. As soon as the party had allentered the room the guide turned round towards them, and, in a veryformal and monotonous manner, like a schoolboy reciting a speech whichhe had committed to memory for a declamation, made the followingstatement:--
"This room is the library room of the dean and chapter. It is fifty feet long and forty feet wide. The floor is of oak. It is made of two thousand three hundred and seventy-six square pieces, curiously inlaid, without a nail or a peg to fasten them together."
After looking about for a little time in this room, in which, after all,there was nothing very remarkable or interesting except the idea that itwas situated in one of the towers of St. Paul's, the party wereconducted across the end of the church towards the other tower seen inthe engraving; that is, the tower on the left, which is used as abelfry. In passing through from one of these towers to the other, theparty traversed a sort of gallery which was built here across the end ofthe church, and which afforded a very commanding view of the wholeinterior of the edifice. The whole party stopped a moment in thisgallery to look down into the church below. They could see through thewhole length of it, five hundred feet; and Rollo and Jennie were verymuch amused at the groups of people that were walking about here andthere, like mites, on the marble floor. They could see, at a greatdistance, the place where the transepts crossed the main building; butof course they could not see far into the transepts. In the same mannerthey could see the beginning of the dome; but they could not see veryfar up into it, the view being cut off by the vaulted roof of the nave,which was nearer.
After this our party went to see various other curious places in andnear these two great towers. One of these places was called the modelroom, where there is a very large model of a plan for a church which SirChristopher Wren, the architect who built St. Paul's, first designed. Bymost good judges, it is thought to be a better design than the one whichwas finally adopted. There were, besides this, various other curiousmodels and old relics in this room.
The party also went up into the clock tower, by means of a very narrow,steep, and winding staircase, where there was only room for one to go ata time. The steps were of stone, but they were greatly worn away by thefootsteps of the thousands of visitors that had ascended them.
There was a woman at the top of the stairs who had the charge of theclock room. This woman showed the party the wheels of the clock, whichwere of prodigious magnitude.[E] There were three bells--two that werecalled the small bells, though they were really very large, and onewhich was called the large bell. This last, Rollo said, was a monster.
[E] The works of this clock are on such a scale that the pendulum isfourteen feet long, and the weight at the end weighs more than onehundred pounds. The minute hand is eight feet long, and weighsseventy-five pounds.
"The small bells," said the woman, pointing up to the bells, which Rolloand Jennie saw far above their heads, in the midst of a maze of beamsand rafters, "chime the quarter hours. The great bell strikes the hours,and tolls in case of the death of any member of the royal family."
"I don't see any thing very remarkable about them," said Rollo to hismother. "They are only three common bells."
"No," replied Mrs. Holiday, "the things themselves that are to be seenare nothing. It is only the curious places that we climb up to to seethem, and the thought that we are in the veritable old St. Paul's."
After having talked some little time with the woman about the clock andthe bells, and about the visitors that come from day to day to seethem, the party descended again, by the dark and narrow stairway, tothe great corridor by which they came to this part of the church, inorder to visit the parts of the edifice connected with the dome andcupola, which are, in some respects, more interesting than all the rest.
