Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/298

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734) the most learned man in Europe of his time, a meteor in an age of darkness; a plain flat stone, without any inscription. Proceeding up the great nave, venerable from the awful vista of "long-drawn ailes and fretted vaults," we leave on the south side the monument of Ralph Lord Neville, the gallant and the rich, who took David Bruce prisoner; and whose influence, when alive, procured him honours after death which laymen had not hitherto attained to sepulture within the walls of the cathedral of Durham. The magnificent ceremonies of his interment realized the fanciful picture of the poet's description of Arthur's burial, brought to the church-yard in a chariot drawn by seven horses:

"There, with chaunted orison,
"And thelong blaze of tapers clear,
"The stoled fathers met the bier;
"Through the dim ailes, in order dread
"Of martial woe, the chief they led,
"And deep entomb'd in holy ground,
"Before the altar's solemn bound."

In the southern transept we see the curious clock of elaborate work, built in the year 1632, and in the pillars, windows, and skreens, a thousand varieties of architectural ornament. From the great nave two marble steps conduct into the choir, an august edifice one hundred and twenty feet long; heavy, but solemn. The throne, built when the