Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/305

 unknown. The present bishop, whose munificence fully equals his ability, to make improvements and alterations in this venerable pile, accidentally discovered the arch-way, and directed it to be cleaned and repaired. The number of mouldings, the variety of ornaments, the beauty of the pattern, and the nicety of the workmanship, render it unquestionably the most interesting monument extant of the Anglo-Norman architecture.

In the common dining-room, from the circumstance of its late alterations, a man might make a comfortable meal. Here we found half-lengths of George II. and his Queen Caroline Wilhelmina of Brandenburg; and on looking from its windows, had an extremely singular view of the town which crouched below us, and the river nearly encirling it, its bridges, and wooded banks. To these we descended by a path from the church-yard, and here entered upon the celebrated walks opened and kept in repair by the dean and chapter, which accompany the bending of the stream, and command several singular and interesting peeps at the city and its august ornaments, the castle and cathedral. The banks, rocky and abrupt, on one hand, and sloping gently to the river on the other, darkened by a solemn depth of shade, sequestered and retired, in the immediate neighbourhood of a busy scene of society, afford a