There are several chapels, a finely groined roof, and ancient tombs, which all lend interest to this fine cathedral.
The red-veined marble statue of Walter de Merton cannot fail to attract attention. He was the founder of the great scholastic college at Oxford called Merton College. Though small in size, the entrée to it demands high classical attainments.
With regard to commerce, Rochester has a favourable position on the river Medway, in the creeks and branches of which are the oyster fisheries. The Corporation, assisted by a jury of free dredgers, hold a Court of Admiralty, in which they make regulations for the opening, stocking, and closing of the oyster beds.
In conclusion, we cannot help saying that Kent should be a proud county, possessing, as it does, the two most ancient sees in the kingdom, the dioceses of which are separated only by the Medway.
("Doomsday Book.")
N the West Riding of the county of York, twenty-two miles north-west of the city of York and eleven miles north of Harrogate, the ancient city of Ripon is situated at the juncture of the Ure, Laver, and Skell. The narrow and irregular streets and well-built houses, some of which still retain the quaint, picturesque gables so reminiscent of earlier times, envelop the city with that delightful, indefinable air of mediævalism—a something which, tempered with old associations and traditions, no modern city with all its improvements can supply. To saunter through the ancient, ill-lighted streets of an old town at night, when life is dormant and commercialism quiescent, is the time to view unexpected beauties of architecture unfold themselves, and to become oneself imbued with a spirit of romanticism and a feeling of rest. If a figure in mediæval costume and rapier were to come round a corner suddenly, or emerge from some dark nook, it would scarcely startle the senses, so appropriate would it seem with the surroundings, enshrouded in mysterious shadows.
A new city can be admired, but can never be revered till it has survived the many storms of generations, and has emerged with a halo of traditions respected and treasured.