St. Paul's is here, as it
is, a noble pile, and not unworthy of this great nation.
And even
if I were sure that I could, you would hardly thank me for showing
you how it might have been still more worthy of this intelligent
people. I make a conscience however of telling you always, with
fidelity, what impression everything I see or hear makes on me at
the time. For a small sum of money I was conducted all over the
church by a man whose office it seemed to be, and he repeated to me,
I dare say, exactly his lesson, which no doubt he has perfectly got
by rote: of how many feet long and broad it was; how many years it
was in building, and in what year built. Much of this rigmarole
story, which, like a parrot, he repeated mechanically, I could
willingly have dispensed with. In the part that was separated from
the rest by the iron gate above mentioned, was what I call the
church itself; furnished with benches, pews, pulpit, and an altar;
and on each side seats for the choristers, as there are in our
cathedrals. This church seemed to have been built purposely in such
a way, that the bishop, or dean, or dignitary, who should preach
there, might not be obliged to strain his voice too much. I was now
conducted to that part which is called the whispering gallery, which
is a circumference of prodigious extent, just below the cupola.
Here I was directed to place myself in a part of it directly
opposite to my conductor, on the other side of the gallery, so that
we had the whole breadth of the church between us, and here as I
stood, he, knowing his cue no doubt, flung to the door with all his
force, which gave a sound that I could compare to nothing less than
a peal of thunder.
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