Basilica Anglicana—Iv.

the stability ot the foundation , so that after much consideration , aud with great reluctance , the builder abandoned the contemplated height . The two towers on the west front are JOG feet in height ; the whole length of the building east and west , is 524- | feet ; that of the transept , north aud south , 222 feet . The length of tho choir is 157 ^ feet , and its breadth -1 G . V feet ; in addition to which there is a cliapol

, formerly dedicated to the Virgin , making a length of 222 feet . The length of tho nave is 261 feet ; its breadth , including aisles , 100 , and its height , 99 feet . The ancient name of York was Eboracum , and it ajipears to have been , a very early , and to have ultimately grown a very considerablesettlement of the Eomans . It was here

, the Emperor Scvorus died at the end of the second , or early in the beginning of the third century , and here also died Constantius the father of Constantine the Great , a century later . In the Saxon heptarchy it was the principal town of tlie Saxon kingdom of Northumberland , which was itself

formed by tho union of the kingdoms of Deira and Berniciu , It is stated that as early as the second century there was a British-king , Lucius , who had even at that early period embraced Christianity and invited over a number of prelates whom ho greatly favoured and endowed . Under his auspices it is said the first stone of a building , dedicated to Saint Peter the Prince of the Apostles was laidthe king laying

, upon the stone a great portion of his wealth . Later inquiries havo thrown however some doubt over the existence no less than the piety of this monarch ; and much that we hear of him—as well as of the time in which he lived , and even later , down to the end of tho fourth century—is alleged to be largely intermixed with fable and falsehood

. " Upon the death of Augustine , the apostle of the English , in G 05 , just eight years after his landing , during which period Christianity had made rapid strides , Pope Gregory commanded that there should be an archbishopric of York . In furtherance of this object , which he had long cherished but to which there seemed insurmountable obstacles—the

inhabitants of the north not at all favouring the new religion—the . Pope resolved to bring about a political marriage , by which he hoped to facilitate the extended propagation of the Christian religion . One of the earliest converts of Augustine was Ebald , King of Kent , whose example was immediately followed by all his family , and under whom and by whose favour 'the archbishopric of Canterbury was founded and

endowed . Ethelburga , the daughter of Ebald , was induced , after repeated exhortation and commands , to give her hand to Edwin , the powerful but idolatrous monarch of the Northumbrians , and sovereign of the heptarchy . The lady , however , stipulated—thus setting a fashion of which later history furnishes not a few examplesand some of whicli were

, followed by very important consequences—that she should be allowed the free exercise of her reli gion , and that she should be permitted to take with her such ecclesiastics as she chose to form part of her household . Ethelburga , after much difficulty , aided by Paulinas who hacl been previously consecrated Archbishop of York , persuaded her sovereign lord to

allow himself to be baptised , which ceremony was performed with tho pomp and circumstance that distinguished Roman ceremonials in those days . On Easter day , 12 th of April , A . D . C 27 , a wooden memorial church was raised on the spot , the same site as that which the present structure occupies . Edwin was shortly afterwards slain in a great battle fought

at Hatfield , against Penda , King of Mercia , and Cadwalla , King of Wales ; and Ethelburga and Paulinus being obliged to fly , the latter was named shortly afterwards , Bishop of . Rochester . Peace being restored , the church was recommenced by Oswald , tlio successor and cousin of Edwin ( the material this time being stone ) and was completed by Wilfred

, , one of those haughty and turbulent prelates who were wont in those days to seize upon the revenues of kings for the aggrandisement of the church , ancl to crush , under fierce anathema all who should oppose or thwart them in the

accomplishment of their ends . Ihe structure was burnt to the ground in 741 . Siward , the Dane , who was Earl of Northumberland iu the reign of the Confessor , built a church on the same spot , but this was again burnt down in 1070 . York was , however , almost utterly destroyed by William the Conqueror , who loaded its inhabitants with reproaches and

regarded their city as , to use the words of William of Malmesbury , " a vile nest of sedition . " Indeed scarcely a vestige of the ancient Eborac of the Saxons or Eboracum of the Romans was left . Its metropolitan church and principal buildings were trampled under the iron heel of the Norman . Amongst other treasures that were destroyed by the rapacious

conqueror was a famous library , of which the celebrated Alcuin ( the preccptof of Charlemagne ) speaks both in his poems and lettors , / and which was known and visited by nearly all the learned of Europe . But if William was anxious to erase every memorial ol Saxon ait , ho was not less munificent to his followers . Thomas , a canon of Bayeux , in Normandy , was forthwith appointed Archbishop of York , and the new prelate set at once about the restoration of the cathedral church . He

rebuilt it on a larger scale , furnished it with a regular chapter , and endowed it with prebends and other dignities . The huge fabric was , however , once more burnt down , in 1137 , together with a great portion of the city . Roger Bishopsbridgc , the successor of Thomas , recommenced the work , beginning with tho choir , but no part of his works remain . It is by no

moans certain at what period and by what prelates or architects the various parts of the present structure were begun and completed : As near however as can be ascertained from a comparison of the mediaeval writers , it would appear that the present south transept was built by Archbishop Walter-Gray , between 1220 and 1240 . The north transept was

begmi by the same prelate , but was not completed at his death , the work being carried on by John le Romayne , the treasurer of the cathedral , until 1260 . The octagonal chapterhouse , which is unrivalled , consisting of one magnificent apartment sixty-three feet in diameter , and having a conical roof , was commenced about 1284 . The pmesent nave docs

not appear to have been begun until about the year 1291 , by Archbishop John le Romayne , who left its completion to his successor , Archbishop Thoresby , in 1360 . The choir was also commenced by this prelate , and was not finished until 1472 . Tints , for a period extending over nine centuries , with varying fortunes , sometimes disastrous enough , this noble edifice was in course of construction . Seen towering above the

habitations of men , it looks like a colossus . When the moon sails over the silent city at night , its gigantic proportions , its < n-cy edged niches ancl angles , with the ghost-like statues which fill them , give out a solemn impression , imtil one is led almost involuntarily to uncover and exclaim , " Surely this p lace is the house of God . "

Nor less impressive is the view obtained in the full blaze of noon from the western end looking along the interior towards the great window in the eastern end . Before and beside you extend seven ]} ier arches , lancet shaped , fifty feet in height , surmounted by triforium and clerestory windows , having below them an open screen , with trefoiled heads ,

crocketted pediments , and quatrefoiled cornice . The piers are solid quadrangular masses . The roof is of wood , the ribs carved in beautiful tracery , with knots and clusters at the intersections , on which are also carved scriptural representations . As you proceed nearer to the choir the solemnity of the place and the harmony of its proportions produce that

state of feeling which one mig ht be supposed to experience in the presence of some being the awe inspired by whose , aspect is softened by the benignity that beams from every feature of an angelic countenance . Erom the four great piers which support the central tower spring four stupendous arches , more than one hundred feet in height . You pass the transepts—the north in which the windows called the Eive Sisters are situated , and the south with its three tiers