Bk. VI. Ch. III. SITUATION. 171 from the various changes they have undergone, which, when architec- ture alone is considered, frequently turn the balance against them when compared with their Continental rivals. Situation. Whatever conclusion may be arrived at with regard to some of the points mooted in the above section, there can be no doubt that in beauty of situation and pleasing arrangement of the entourage the English cathedrals surpass all others. On the Continent the cathedral is generally situated in the market-place, and frequently encumbered by shops and domestic buildings, not stuck up against it in barbarous times, but either contemporary, or generally at least Mediasval ; and their great abbeys are frequently situated in towns, or in localities possessing no particular beauty of feature. In England this is seldom or never the case. The cathedral was always surrounded by a close of sufficient extent to afford a lawn of turf and a grove of trees. Even in the worst times of Anne and the Georges, when men chiselled away the most exquisite Gothic canopies to set up wooden classical altar-screens, they spared the trees and cherished the grass ; and it is to this that our cathedrals owe half their charm. There can be no greater mistake tlian to suppose that the architect's mission ceases with heaping stone on stone, or arranging interiors for convenience and effect. The situation i's the first thing he should study ; the arrangement of the accessories, though the last, is still amongst the most important of his duties. Durham owes half its charm to its situation, and Lincoln much of its grandeur. Vithout its park the cathedral at Ely would lose much of its beauty ; and Wells, lying in its well-wooded and watered vale, forms a picture which may challenge com])arison with anything of its class. Even when situated in towns, as Canterbury, Winchester, or Gloucester, a suffi.cient space is left for a little greenery and to keep off the hum and movement of the busy world. York, among our great cathedrals, is about the most unfortunate in this resj^ect, and suffers accordingly. But in order to appreciate how essentially the love of Nature mingled with the taste for architectural beauty during the Middle Ages, it is necessary to visit some of the ruined abbeys whose ruins still sanctify the green valleys or the banks of placid streams in every corner of England, . Even if it should be decided that in some respects the architects of England must yield the palm to those of the Continent as regards the mechanical perfection of their designs, it must at least be conceded, that in combining the beauties of Art with those of Nature they were unrivalled. Their buildings are always well fitted to the position in which they are placed. The subsidiary edifices are always properly
