Page:The Jubilee, or what I heard and saw in London.djvu/12

6 at the west door of the former, at nine o'clock on the morning of Tuesday the 15th, in the midst of a crowd of persons awaiting the opening of the gates. At a quarter past nine, precisely, the janitor appeared with his keys, and immediately afterwards the multitude, hitherto pent up, swept like a torrent into the venerable building. In a few seconds I was established in a seat within the choir, immediately in front of the pulpit; and around me, north, south, east, and west, I observed thousands pressing in with looks replete with eagerness and interest.

Let me now for a few minutes survey the glorious pile. How appropriate its architecture! How well fitted to lofty and religious thoughts! The monuments, too, from the position which I occupy, suggest historic recollections of a pleasing nature. The repairs and alterations recently effected within the building are of a character which tends to render it an outward type of what I trust the Church of England itself is becoming, namely, a purified, restored, and thoroughly efficient institution.

Let me next glance at the persons assembled, who have now quietly seated themselves wherever seats are to be found, and who in other situations are patiently standing. I see before me a good specimen of the middle and upper classes of English society. The clergy are here, as might be expected, in very considerable numbers. There is a peculiarity about their appearance which distinguishes them from any other clergy in Christendom. I will add also that there is a certain absence of pretence, a freedom, an intelligence, an air of refinement, which indicate that they are generally trustworthy and educated men, adapted to