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372 there is a row of plain brick houses between you and the cathedral, and these too are looking at their homely faces in the water; and as their red walls reach up half-way to the caves of the magnificent structure, the latter looks like a queen standing in full court robes at a mirror with a dumpy country milkmaid in a red woollen petticoat just before, blending her peasant form and dress in the same reflection.

This cathedral perhaps suffered more than any other in England during the Civil War; and mostly for the reason that it was more strongly fortified. One of its Bishops. Langton, had surrounded it with a strong wall and a, giving it the attitude of an embattled castle as well as a Christian church—a strength which proved its weakness and half destruction. Being found in the armour of carnal warriors, they put it on for the battle, and church and all suffered sadly as the result. The cathedral was garrisoned like a castle for King Charles I, and was taken and retaken, battered and rebattered by the contending forces. It shows one of the horrible features of a civil war that both Royalists and Parliamentarians could have the heart to point their cannon at such an edifice. In the course of one bombardment, the great central spire, the apex of the splendid triangle, was shorn off close to the roof. The Puritans come in for severe condemnation for their