The Archbishop Being Thus Established In
Kent, Sent His Missionaries Into Other Parts Of England, Making
Melitus, One Of His Assistants, Bishop Of London; And King
Ethelbert, To Encourage That City To Embrace Christianity, It Is
Said, Founded The Cathedral Of St. Paul About The Year 604.
This Cathedral stands upon an eminence in the middle of the town,
disengaged from all other buildings, so that
Its beauties may be
viewed on every side; whereas we see only one front of St. Peter's
at Rome, the palace of the Vatican, and other buildings contiguous
to it, rendering the rest invisible; and though the riches and
furniture of the several chapels in St. Peter's are the admiration
of all that view them, yet they spoil the prospect of the fabric.
If we regard only the building, divested of the rich materials and
furniture which hide the beauties of the structure, St. Paul's, in
the opinion of many travellers, makes a better appearance than St.
Peter's: nor does the white Portland stone, of which St. Paul's is
built, at all give place to the marble St. Peter's is lined or
incrusted with; for the numerous lamps and candles that are burnt
before the altars at St. Peter's so blacken and tarnish the marble,
that it is not easy to distinguish it from common stone.
As to the outside of St. Paul's, it is adorned by two ranges of
pilasters, one above the other; the lower consist of 120 pilasters
at least, with their entablature of the Corinthian order, and the
upper of as many with entablament of the Composite order, besides
twenty columns at the west and four at the east end, and those of
the porticoes and spaces between the arches of the windows; and the
architrave of the lower order, &c., are filled with great variety of
curious enrichments, consisting of cherubims, festoons, volutas,
fruit, leaves, car-touches, ensigns of fame, as swords and trumpets
in saltier crosses, with chaplets of laurel, also books displayed,
bishops' caps, the dean's arms, and, at the east end, the cypher of
W.R. within a garter, on which are the words Honi soit qui mal y
pense, and this within a fine compartment of palm-branches, and
placed under an imperial crown, &c., all finely carved in stone.
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