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vidual. It occupied thirty-five years in building, under the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren; while St. Peter's, at Rome, took one hundred and fifty-five years in its construction, under the supervision of twelve successive architects. St. Paul's is more symmetrically beautiful than St. Peter's; its cost was close upon £750,000. Its dimensions are 404 feet in height, 500 in length, and 250 at its extreme breadth. St. Peter's is 437 feet in height, 730 feet long, and 500 broad. Wren received only £200 a year during the progress of this great work; for which he incurred the great responsibility of the undertaking, as well as the hazard of his life in being hauled up in baskets scores of times, even to the top of the cupola and cross. While Wren was adjusting the dimensions of the dome, he ordered a laborer to bring him a flat stone to be laid as a direction to the masons. The man brought by chance a fragment of a gravestone on which the word Resurgam was inscribed. This suggested to Sir Christopher the idea of the phoenix, which he placed on the south portico with that word cut beneath. In the centre of the Cathedral, immediately under the great dome, is an inscription in brass over the remains of the great architect, which reads as follows:

"Si monumentum requiris circumspice."

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The interior of this vast edifice is in the form of a Latin cross, having a nave, choir, transepts, and side aisles.

The choir is separated from the body of the Church by iron railings. Over the entrance to it is the organ gallery, and an organ erected in 1694, by Bernard Schmydt, or Smith, at a cost of £2000, and supposed to be one of the first in the kingdom. On the south side of the choir is a throne for the bishop, and on the north side another for the lord mayor; besides those there is on each side a long range of stalls. The whole are richly ornamented with carvings, by Grinley Gibbons, who was the first, according to Walpole, who succeeded in giving to wood "the loose and airy lightness of flowers; and chained together the various productions of the elements with a free disorder natural to each species." In the chancel, or semicircular recess, at the east end, stands the communion table.

The lofty columns which support the immense dome, are clustered with sculptured monuments of names distinguished in British history. The resting place of Nelson is probably that which excites the deepest interest; it is in the crypt of the Cathedral. There is a gallery round the interior cf the dome known as "The Whispering Gallery," where, by whispering against the wall, a person at

the opposite extremity can hear what you say, as distinctly as if you spoke in a loud voice. The slamming of a door in that gallery reverberates like thunder.

Some fair specimens of the sculptor's art beautify the interior of the Cathedral; we can only indicate a few, the statue of Howard the philanthropist, and that of Johnson, both by Bacon. Also of Sir William Jones; Sir John Moore; Lords Howe, Cornwallis, Rodney, etc.

But the passenger through St. Paul's Churchyard has not only the last home of Nelson and others to venerate, but in the ground of the old church were buried the gallant Sir Philip Sydney (the beau idéal of the age of Elizabeth), and Vandyke, who immortalised the youth and beauty of the court of Charles I. One of Elizabeth's great statesmen also lies there-Walsingham,—who died so poor, that he was buried by stealth, to prevent his body from being arrested; another, Sir Christopher Hatton, who is supposed to have danced himself into the office of Her Majesty's Chancellor; Fletcher, Bishop of London, father of the great poet, was another who had a tomb in the old Church. Dr. Donne, the head of the metaphysical poets, so ably criticised by Johnson, was Dean of St. Paul's, and had a grave here, of which he has

left an extraordinary memorial.

It is a wooden image of himself, made by his order, and representing him as he was to appear in his shroud. This, for some time before he died, he kept by his bed-side, in an open coffin, thus endeavoring to reconcile an uneasy imagination to the fate he could not avoid. It is still preserved in the vaults under the church, and is to be seen with the other curiosities of the Cathedral.

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On a clear day, which is somewhat a rarity in the smoky Metropolis, one of the most magnificent sights the eye can behold or the mind contemplate, is afforded from the summit of St. Paul's. somewhat of an undertaking, it is true, to make one's way up some six or seven hundred steps to the top, but once having gained it, the labor is more than repaid. This we can avouch from repeated experience; and so sublime a spectacle was it deemed by Haydon, that he perilled his life during a series of months in sketching from a scaffolding erected over the cross, the panorama from which he painted his celebrated picture of London.

The most interesting time to witness St. Paul's Cathedral, is on the anniversary celebration of the Parochial Schools of London in May, when some fifteen thousand children, the members of each school being dressed alike, are congregated within

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