L FROM THE GALILEE.]

CHAPTER II.

THE CATHEDRAL: EXTERIOR.

Few persons would dispute the statement that for external grandeur of
effect the cathedral at Ely is surpassed only, if at all, in England by
Durham and Lincoln. With the natural advantages of position enjoyed by
those cathedrals Ely cannot compete. In both these cases, also, there
are grand mediaeval buildings of great size near at hand, that group
well with the cathedrals and materially improve the effect. But,
compared with the adjacent country, Ely does stand on an eminence, and
consequently can be seen from a great distance in all directions. At
Durham the distant view is limited by the hilly nature of the district;
Lincoln, except on the north side, can probably be seen more than thirty
miles off, from the ground.[1] Ely can be seen quite well from the
tower of Peterborough--about thirty-five miles as the crow flies. Ely is
nearly, but not quite, the highest spot in the Fenland. One place in Ely
is 109 feet above mean sea-level. The highest elevation in the Fenland
is near Haddenham, some five miles to the south-west of Ely, where a few
bench-marks give 121 and 122 feet above sea-level.

It is not only its magnificence that makes the view of Ely Cathedral so
remarkable, there is also the feeling that it has so many striking
features, to which we can find nothing to compare. "The first glimpse of
Ely overwhelms us, not only by its stateliness and variety of its
outline, but by its utter strangeness, its unlikeness to anything else."
So says Professor Freeman[2] and again: "Ely, ... with its vast single
western tower, with its central octagon unlike anything else in the
whole world, has an outline altogether peculiar to itself."

Although Ely, with the single exception of Wells,[3] is the smallest of
the ancient episcopal cities[4] of England, the area of the cathedral
is exceeded only by four others--York, S. Paul's, Lincoln, and
Winchester. The church certainly gives the impression of being out of
all proportion to the town.[5] There has been nothing to occasion any
considerable increase in the number of the inhabitants. Sixty years ago
there were within about four hundred as many as now. The town, as has
been pointed out above, grew out of the foundation of the monastery.
"The history of Ely is the history of Wells, Lichfield, Peterborough,
Bury Saint Edmunds, and a crowd of others, where the church came first
and the town grew up at the ga