The Cathedral of the Incarnation, at Garden City, N. Y., the memorial
of Mrs. Cornelia M. Stewart to her husband, Alexander T. Stewart, was
opened April 9, 1885, by impressive religious ceremonies. At precisely
11 o'clock the chimes in the cathedral tower rang out a clear and
resonant peal, and the people thronged into the building through its
tower and transept entrances.

The effort has been made to reproduce in the cathedral a pure type of
the Gothic architecture of the thirteenth century, without its ruder
and less refined characteristics. The strained and coarse images
designed to illustrate "the world, the flesh, and the devil,"
which seem so strange and unapt to American visitors to the
great Continental cathedrals, are almost entirely omitted in this
reproduction. The carving, too, in deference to the more sensitive
tastes and better skill of this age, is far more artistic and natural
than in the old originals. Flowers in stone are made to resemble
flowers, and heads are fashioned after a human pattern, and clusters
of figures are modeled in a congruous and modern manner. But aside
from changes of this kind, the new and magnificent edifice upon
Hempstead Plains is a perfect example of the elaborate and picturesque
Gothic structures of mediaeval days.

It is built of brown sandstone raised in colossal blocks. The spire,
floriated richly and graduated with a precise symmetry, rises to an
extreme altitude of 220 feet 6 inches. The extreme length is about 170
ft. The massive oaken front doors are carved handsomely, and contain
the arms of the Stewart family, the Clinch family (Mrs. Stewart's
maiden name), the Hilton family, and those of Bishop Littlejohn,
the Episcopal head of the Long Island Diocese. The porch or tower
entrance, which is the main entrance to the building, is paved with
white marble. In the center of the floor the Stewart arms are enameled
in brass, showing a shield with a white and blue check, supported
by the figures of a wild Briton and a lion. The crest is a pelican
feeding its young, and the motto is "_Prudentia et Constantia_."
These heraldic figures are made a special feature of the main aisle.
Directly in the center of the auditorium floor the Stewart and Clinch
arms are impaled, enameled in brass. On the floor in the choir the
Hilton arms are placed. They bear the patriotic motto "_Ubi libertas
ibi patria_," with a deer for a crest. The floor of the ante-chancel
presents the arms of the d