THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| VOL. X, NO. 276.] | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1827. | [PRICE 2d. |
BRISTOL CATHEDRAL.
There is given
Unto the things of earth, which Time hath bent,
A spirit's feelings, and where he hath leant
His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power
And magic in the ruin'd battlement
For which the palace of the present hour
Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower.
BYRON.
The cathedral of Bristol is one of the most interesting relics ofmonastic splendour which have been spared from the wrecks of desolationand decay. It is dedicated to the holy and undivided Trinity, and is theremains of an abbey or monastery of great magnificence, which wasdedicated to St. Augustine. The erection of this monastery was begunin 1140, and was finished and dedicated in 1148, according to theinscription on the tomb of the founder, Robert Fitzharding, the firstlord of Berkeley, who, together with others of that illustrious family,are enshrined within these walls. It was also denominated the monasteryof the black regular canons of the order of Saint Victor, who arementioned by Leland as the black canons of St. Augustine within the citywalls. By some historians, Fitzharding is represented as an opulentcitizen of Bristol; but generally as a younger son or grandson of theking of Denmark, and as the youthful companion of Henry II., who,betaking himself from the sunshine of royal friendship, became a canonof the monastery he himself had founded. In this congenial solitude hedied in 1170, aged 75. Such is the outline of the foundation of thisstructure, and it is one of the most attractive episodes of the earlyhistory of England; for the circumstance of a noble exchanging thegilded finery of a court, and the gay companionship of his prince, forthe gloomy cloisters of an abbey, and the ascetic duties of monasticlife, bespeaks a degree of resolution and self-control which was moreprobably the result of sincere conviction than of momentary caprice.
The present cathedral is represented to have been merely the church ofthe monastery, which was entirely rebuilt in the commencement of thefourteenth century. The style of architecture in the different parts ofthis cathedral is accurately discriminated in the following account fromthe pen of Bishop Littleton, F.S.A.:—"The lower parts of the chapterhouse walls," says he, "together with the door-way and[pg 226]columns at the entrance of the chapter-house, may be pronounced to be ofthe age of Stephen, or rather prior to his reign, being fine Saxonarchitecture. The inside walls of the chapter-house have roundornamental arches intersecting each other. The cathedral appears to beof the same style of building throughout, and in no part older thanEdward the First's time, though some writers suppose the present fabricwas begun in king Stephen's time; but not a single arch, pillar, orwindow agrees with the mode which prevail