Page:Dean Aldrich A Commemoration Speech.djvu/26

 Duppa and Samuel Fell. It was almost on the lines of those old buildings that Aldrich planned the present stately square, and on Jan. 26, 1705, the first stone was laid by James, Earl of Salisbury, 'sub auspiciis Decani eorumdem architecti, optime de se meriti.' It must have been a triumphant day for the Dean. Fell had done much, but Aldrich had done more, and done it with his own hand. The building is well worthy of him. Grim and ghastly as our grey weather renders it, there is a grandeur in the simplicity of the lines, a dignity in the elevation, a majesty in the ease with which the pilasters rise from the basal story, which no wind can beat out or rain wash wholly away.

And over his new quad, from his Deanery window, he could see the beautiful little temple which he has poised on high for the spire of All Saints'—a work almost unique, it seems to me, in its effort to give the effect of a Gothic spire out of pure Palladian material; an effort too marvellously successful when we think how naturally it groups with St. Mary's, and how much we shall miss it if, as it is now feared, it has to come down. Trinity chapel is attributed to the Dean, but doubtfully, and I hope we may give him the benefit of the doubt.

But if his walls should crumble and his towers fall, he has built himself a palace more endurable than all, a city of song. He was one of those who, by word and work, revived the music which our Church, in the bitterness of her exile in a strange land, had known not how to sing; and Aldrich gave it her back tuned to a nobler key. For he had heard the music of Italy, the deep melodies of Palestrina, Carissimi, and Victoria, and he surrendered himself to them with the devoted ardour of a student and a disciple. He made a noble collection for a