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incomplete because of such an apprehension. A steeple which Browne Willis had contributed to repair or to re-edify at Buckingham, fell down in little more than twenty years, and Pennant narrowly escaped being crushed in its ruins, having_providentially gone out of the church just before it fell. The recent catastrophe at Fonthill is a nearer and more memorable example: there, as at Salisbury, there had been no intention of such a superstructure in the original design, and consequently no adequate foundation prepared for it; and, when that hasty elevation, which had been half hurried up by torchlight and midnight labour, as if to show what wonders could be performed by the wantonness of wealth, tottered to its fall, one might fancy that the Weathercock on the cathedral clapt his wings and crowed in honour of the old architect whose work, after the lapse of so many centuries, was standing in its beauty and its strength.

A settlement took place in this beautiful structure, it is believed, soon after its completion, at the western side, or rather in the piers, or clustered columns, under the north-western and southwestern angles of the tower. Such methods as were deemed best have been employed at different times to counteract the danger. At the top of the parapet of the tower, the tower declines nine inches to the south, and more than three to the west; but, at the capstone of the spire, the declination is twenty-four inches and a half to the south, and sixteen and a quarter to the west. In such an elevation this is not perceptible to the most practised eye, the height being 404 feet, according to the most approved measurement. That of Strasburg is 456; that of Vienna, which exceeds all others, 465: but Salisbury is the loftiest stone building that has ever been raised in this island. The spire of old St. Paul's, which was 520 feet in height, was constructed mostly, if not entirely, of timber and lead. But in such edifices, a wooden spire or a wooden roof (as at York) detracts much, and not without good reason, from the general impression which the structure would otherwise produce. The beholder has no longer the same sense of munificence in the undertaking, grandeur in the conception, difficulty in the execution, and durability in the work. His admiration is abated: the truth which is expressed in a homely proverb concerning silk purses is exemplified upon a great scale, and the reflecting mind is made to feel that, where the impression of richness or of grandeur is intended, the materials must be such as not to disparage the work. Salisbury spire is the great work of human power which it appears to be, and therefore excites even more admiration in an instructed than in an ignorant mind. Mr. Britton, looking at it with a severer eye, says of it that, although it is an object of popular and scientific curiosity, it cannot pro

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a previous ceremony was performed by the bishop in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, (that Stephen Langton who acted so noble a part in obtaining Magna Charta from the King, and maintaining it against the Pope,) and of Henry, Archbishop of Dublin. The bishop consecrated an altar in the east to the Trinity and All Saints. At this altar the mass of the Virgin Mary was to be sung every day from that time forth, for which service he offered two silver basons and as many silver candlesticks, the bequest of the noble lady Gundria de Warren; they are supposed to have been removed from the church at Old Sarum, having been the bequest of a daughter of William the Conqueror, And on his own part, he gave thirty marks of silver yearly to the priests who should officiate, and ten marks for the lamps which should be kept burning there. He consecrated also an altar in the north part of the church to St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles; and one in the south to St. Stephen, the proto-martyr, and All Martyrs. On the morrow, being Michaelmas day, Archbishop Langton preached to a great assemblage of persons; then went into the new church and performed the first mass there, Otto the nuncio being present, the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishops of Durham, Bath, Chichester, Rochester, and Evreux in Normandy.

In the course of the week the young king arrived, with the justiciary Hubert de Burgh; and Henry, after hearing the mass of the Virgin, offered ten marks of silver and a piece of silk; and Hubert made a vow that he would give a gold Text for the service of the altar, with certain precious stones, and more precious relics of divers saints, in honour of the blessed Virgin. The Text was a copy of the four Gospels, for the service of the altar; in thẹ richer churches it was sometimes elaborately adorned with gold and ivory, and, as appears to have been the case in this instance, written in letters of gold. This gift of the justiciary produced from the young king the offering of a ruby ring, that both the gold of the ring, and the stone might be employed to adorn the covers of the Text; at the same time he gave a gold cup weighing ten marks. The said Text was presented first by proxy for Hubert, and afterwards offered by himself in person on the altar, with great devotion. At this time the bishop obtained leave that the oblations made there during the next seven years should be appropriated to the building, except such as might expressly be given for the perpetual ornament and honour of the church: after the expiration of that time the oblations of all the altars were to be applied to the common use, according to the ancient custom of the church of Sarum. It appears also that the plate and other valuables which had been offered were to remain in his custody

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for those seven years, after which they were to be given up to the treasurer; but it is not apparent for what reason he should have chosen to have them in his keeping during this time. The king confirmed by charter to the new church all the liberties and privileges which had belonged to the old cathedral, as the pope. had done, and granted some fresh immunities. The charter declared that New Salisbury should be for ever a free city, and that its citizens should be quit, throughout the land, of toll, pontage, passage, pedage, lastage, stallage, carriage, and all other customs, being thus invested with the same privileges as the citizens of Winchester. The bishop and his successors were authorized to enclose the city with competent trenches, for fear of robbers, and to hold the same for ever as their proper domain, saving to the crown the advowson of the said see, and all its other rights as in other cathedrals. They were empowered also to levy tallage upon the citizens whenever the king exacted it in his domains. The liberties and free customs of a weekly market were granted, and an annual fair of eight days, from the vigil to the octave of the Assumption inclusive, for the benefit of the church. And the citizens were prohibited from selling or mortgaging their burgages or tenements to any church or religious house, without the leave of the bishop.

William Longspee, who laid the fourth stone, (the first which was laid by lay hands,) was the first person whose remains were deposited in the new church; a man unhappy in his parentage, conspicuous in his life, and unfortunate in his end. He was the son of Henry II. and of a mother, whose very name bespeaks favour for her, and whose true penitence may excite as much sympathy as the tragedy which poets have feigned of her death. Fair Rosamond's son was not unworthy to be Coeur-de-Lion's brother; and in that turbulent or heroic age, few persons were more remarkable for their exploits by land and by sea, and for their hair-breadth escapes: but he is supposed to have perished, as his mother is fabled to have done, by poison. There was a report that he had perished by shipwreck, on his return from Bourdeaux, in a storm which had been so violent, that his baggage was thrown overboard. Hubert, the justiciary, instigated his kinsman, Raymond, upon this report, to marry the Lady Ela, and obtain the earldom of Salisbury in her right, pretending some hereditary claim to it on his part, to facilitate his object. Henry III., who was always lightly persuaded by those who had any influence over him, gave his consent, and Raymond, being thus encouraged, urged his suit without regard either to the honour or the feelings of the lady; she, who was a high-spirited and virtuous woman, told him, that had she been indeed a widow, she would never have

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condescended to marry with one so much beneath her, but that letters and messages had arrived from her husband, assuring her of his life and safety. When the earl returned he demanded protection of the king, not against Raymond, whom perhaps he considered too much beneath him, but against Hubert, the justiciary, threatening, if justice were not granted him, to exact it for himself, though he should throw the kingdom into confusion in the pursuit. Hubert confessed and excused his conduct, and purchased a reconciliation by costly gifts. On the earl's part it was sincere; he accepted an invitation from Hubert to a dinner at Marlborough, and it was supposed that poison was then administered to him in his food; a supposition which easily arose and obtained credit, because of the general dislike with which the justiciary was regarded. The earl, from whatever cause, was immediately taken ill; he returned to his castle of Sarum, and dying there, was interred in the unfinished cathedral, where only eight weeks before he had been welcomed on his return from Bourdeaux, with a procession from the church, and with every other demonstration of public joy for his escape. The Lady Ela, who was left with nine children, executed the office of sheriff for Wiltshire three times after her widowhood, and then purchased, for 200 marks, the custody of Sarum Castle for her life. But growing weary of the world, she founded a monastery at Lacock for Augustinian nuns, and retiring thither herself became the abbess.

William Longspee is said to have lived in habitual neglect of his essential duties as a Christian, till he was converted by hearing a sermon, and conversing afterwards for some hours with the preacher, who was canon and treasurer of the new cathedral. That person, who, from this station was raised to the primacy and afterwards canonized as St. Edmund of Canterbury, flourished then at Salisbury in the latent odour of sanctity, and his history, as written by his companion and secretary Bertrand, Abbot of Pontigny, (not as weeded for the use of English Roman Catholics,) is curiously characteristic of those times, and of the system of the Romish church. Reynold Rich, his father, was a tradesman at Abingdon, who, with his wife's consent, retired from the world and became a monk at Evesham. This son was named Edmund, because his mother was engaged in prayer at King St. Edmund's shrine when she felt the first indication of his existence; and on that saint's day he was born, with the happy augury of an immaculate birth, coming into the world in such perfect purity as not to spot or stain the linen wherein he was wrapt. His education was in conformity to this portent: for his mother trained him to observe a bread and water fast regularly on Fridays, by promising and giving him little rewards for the observance; and

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when she sent him with his brother to pursue their studies at Paris, she gave them each a haircloth shirt, charging them to wear it next the skin twice or thrice a week. This mother, Mabylia, who is called in her epitaph the flower of widows, trained her children up in the way which she went herself, being a woman of heroic and iron virtue. As soon as her husband had separated himself from her, she assumed a dress which, by its outer appearance and inner materials, might arm her against temptation: the under garment was of haircloth, reaching to her heels; and over this, that the bristles might be pressed to the skin and felt there, she wore a coat of chain-mail of equal length, in which two plates of iron were inserted for the more discomfort. These were the material arms which she used in her spiritual warfare.

Miserable as those ages were in so many respects, they were favourable to poor scholars. The widow of a tradesman at Abingdon could send her two sons to Paris to pursue their studies, with money enough only to maintain them frugally for a short time, but in full confidence that if they proved themselves deserving, they might rely upon Providence for support. What friends Edmund found there, and how he distinguished himself, as he must have done, his biographer has not thought worthy of record; but he relates that, being troubled with continual head-ache, his mother supposed the cause to be that his clerical tonsure had not been made large enough, and accordingly the razor which enlarged the mystic circle, effectually removed the pain. He tells us also that our Saviour had appeared to him when a boy, and enjoined him every night to trace with his finger the words Jesus of Nazareth upon his forehead, a practice which, it was added, would secure any person from sudden death. And he informs us, which there is no reason to disbelieve, that when Edmund made a vow of chastity before an image of our Lady, he espoused himself to our Lady by putting a ring upon the finger of her image! From that day, his biographer assures us, the Virgin took him under her special protection, et erat ei in umbraculum diei ab æstu tentationum. This was experienced when the devil, performing that office which a heathen poet would have assigned to Cupid, made him find favour without seeking it in the eyes of his landlady's daughter. Weary of repelling the advances of one who is compared to Potiphar's wife, he at length appointed her to come at a certain hour in secret to his chamber; she was true to the assignation, but when at his desire she had taken off some of her upper garments, he flogged her severely with a rod which he had prepared for the purpose, and accompanied the flogging with a lecture, which, according to his own account, made her virtuous for the rest of her life,-vexatio intellectum dedit, et gratiam apposuit.

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