by Jacob Abbott
CHAPTER X.
THE DOME OF ST. PAUL'S.
The dome of St. Paul's rises above the centre of the church, over theintersection of the arms of the cross. There are, in fact, two domes--aninterior and an exterior one; and there are three galleries connectedwith them which strangers visit. The first of these galleries is aninterior one. It passes round the church on the inside, just at the baseof the interior dome. Our party were going first to visit this gallery.
They accordingly walked back through the whole length of the longcorridor described at the close of the last chapter, and then turned intowards the centre of the building through a sort of passage way leadingto a door which was pointed out to them by the guide. On entering thisdoor, they found themselves ushered at once into the whispering gallery.This they found was a vast circular gallery, extending all round theinterior of the church, directly under the dome.
"Ah," said Mr. George, "here we are in the whispering gallery!"
There was a man standing just inside the door. He accosted the party assoon as they came in.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said he, "this is the whispering gallery. If youwill pass round to the other side of it, and put your ears against thewall, I will show you the effect."
So, Mr. George leading the way, and the others following, they allpassed round the gallery towards the other side. The gallery was notvery wide, the space being only sufficient for two or three persons towalk abreast. There was a high balustrade on the edge of it, and on theother side a continuous seat against the wall. First Rollo and Jennie,running forward a little way, sat down on the seat to try it. Then,going forward again a little in advance of Mr. George and Mrs. Holiday,they stopped to look over the balustrade. Rollo could look over it downupon the floor of the church far below. Jennie was not tall enough tolook over the balustrade, and so she looked through.
"There!" said Rollo to Jennie, pointing down; "there's the place wherewe stood when we looked up to this whispering gallery at the time wefirst came in."
The party went on until they had walked half round the gallery and wereexactly opposite the man who was standing at the door where they hadentered. Here Mr. George stopped and sat down upon the seat.
THE WHISPERING GALLERY.]
"Come," said he, "we must all sit down on this seat and put our earsagainst the wall."
Mrs. Holiday and the children did as Mr. George had directed, andlistened. The man at the door, then putting his mouth to the wall,began to speak in a low tone,--almost in a whisper, in fact,--sayingsomething about the building of the church; and though he was at a greatdistance from them,--so far, that if he had been in the open air itwould have been necessary for him to have called out in a very loudvoice to make them hear,--yet every word and syllable of his whisper wasdistinctly audible, the sound being brought round in some mysteriousmanner along the smooth surface of the wall.
"It is very extraordinary!" said Mrs. Holiday.
"It is, indeed!" said Mr. George.
Rollo himself, however, did not seem to be so much interested in thisacoustic phenomenon as his uncle had been. His attention was attractedto the spectacle of the workmen, who were employed in repainting theinner surface of the dome, and whom he could now see at their work onthe staging which he had looked up to from below. One side of thestaging--the side towards the wall--was supported by a cornice, which itrested upon there. The other side--the side that was towards the centreof the dome--was suspended by ropes and pulleys, which came down throughthe lantern from a vast height above.
There was a ladder, the foot of which rested on this staging, the topof it being placed against the surface of the dome above. There was aman upon this ladder, near the top of it, at work on the ceiling, andtwo or three assistants on the staging at the foot of it.
Rollo and Jennie gazed some time with great wonder and awe at thisspectacle, picturing to their imaginations the scene which would ensueif the ropes from the lantern above, by which the staging was suspended,were to break and let the staging, the ladders, and the men all down tothe pavement below.
Presently Rollo and Jane, on looking up, found that Mr. George and Mrs.Holiday were going back; so they made haste to follow them. On their waytowards the door they met other parties coming in to see the whisperinggallery. They themselves went out; and, following the directions of theguide, they began to ascend again, by various intricate and windingstaircases, to higher parts of the building still. After ascending tothe height of four or five stories more, the party came to anothergallery, which was, however, outside of the church instead of within it.This outer gallery is called the stone gallery; it is so called todistinguish it from another outer gallery, still higher up, called thegolden gallery. You can see the places of both these galleries bylooking at the engraving, as they are both outside of the building. Thestone gallery is below the dome. You can see the balustrade surroundingit, just above the head of the statue which stands on the pediment inthe centre of the building. There is a row of columns above this gallerywhich supports an entablature above them, that forms the base of thedome.
As soon as the party came out into the open air they began to realizehow high they had ascended; for they found, on looking down into theneighboring streets, that the tops of the chimneys of the six-storyhouses there were far below them. And yet, as you will see by looking atthe engraving, they had not, thus far, ascended more than half way tothe top of the building.
The party walked round the stone gallery, looking off over the roofs ofthe houses in the city on every side. They could see the river, thebridges, vast ranges of warehouses, and long streets, with tinyomnibuses and carts creeping slowly along them, and men, like mites,moving to and fro along the sidewalks. They could see tall chimneys,too, pouring forth columns of smoke, and steeples and spires ofchurches, far below them.
"How high we are!" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mrs. Holiday; "I am high _enough_. I do not wish to go anyhigher."
In fact, it was somewhat frightful to be so high. It even made Mr.George dizzy to look down from so vast an elevation.
"Are we above, or below, the dome?" said Mrs. Holiday.
"We are above the inner dome," said Mr. George, "but below the outerone."
"I thought they were both the same," said Mrs. Holiday. "I thought theinner dome was the under side of the outer one."
"It ought to be," said Mr. George; "but it is not so in St. Paul's.There is a great space between, filled with masonry and carpentry."
Here Mr. George led the way up a flight of stone steps that ascendedfrom the gallery to a door leading into the interior of the churchagain. When they had all entered they looked up and saw above and aroundthem the commencement of a perfect maze of beams, piers, walls,buttresses, and braces, all blackened by the smoky London atmosphere,and worn and corroded by time. What was near of this immensecomplication was dimly seen by the faint light which made its waythrough the narrow openings which were left here and there in nooks andcorners; but the rest was lost in regions of darkness and gloom, intowhich the eye strove in vain to penetrate.
This was the space between the inner and the outer dome. The walls whichwere seen were part of an immense cone of masonry which was built in thecentre to sustain the whole structure. The lantern above, with the balland cross surmounting it, rests on the top of this cone. The outer domeis formed around the sides of it without. This outer dome is made ofwood; and the immense system of beams and braces which our party saw inthe darkness around them were parts of the framework by which it issupported.
As our party came into this frightful-looking den of darkness andterror, they found themselves at the foot of a steep, but pretty broadand straight, flight of steps, that seemed to lead up into the midst ofthe obscure and gloomy maze, though the eye could follow it only for ashort distance.
Mrs. Holiday hung back. She was evidently disinclined to go any farther.
"It is not worth while for us to go any farther is it?" said she,timidly.
"That is ju
st as you please," said Mr. George. "It is rather frightful,I admit."
"Ah, yes, mother," said Rollo; "let us go up a little higher."
"No," said Jennie; "I don't want to go up any more. It frightens me."
Mrs. Holiday would have made great efforts to overcome her fears, out ofregard to Rollo's wishes, if he had been there alone; but balancedbetween his desires to proceed and Jennie's fears, she seemed to be at aloss. She stood at the foot of the stairs, looking anxious andundecided.
Rollo began to go up the staircase.
"Take care, Rollo!" said his mother.
"There is no danger," said Rollo. "There is an excellent railing. I amonly going up a little way to see how far these straight stairs go.
"I can see the top!" said he again, presently. "It is only a little way,and there is a good broad landing here. Come, Jennie! come up!"
"Would you go?" said Mrs. Holiday, looking to Mr. George.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "if you feel inclined. My rule always is, toallow the lady to do just as she pleases in going into places where sheis afraid."
"I wish other gentlemen would always adopt that rule," said Mrs.Holiday.
"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Mrs. Holiday.
"No," said Mr. George; "I am _sure_ there cannot be any danger. The wayup here is as public as almost any part of London; and people are goingup and coming down continually, and no accidents are ever heard of. Infact, we know that the authorities would not admit the public to such aplace until they had first guarded it at every point, so as to make itperfectly safe."
"Then," said Rollo, who had stood all this time listening on the stairs,"why don't you advise mother to come right up?"
"Because," said Mr. George, "she might suffer a great deal from fear,though she might not meet with any actual harm, or even fall into anyreal danger. I don't wish to have her suffer, even from fear."
"We might go up to the top of this first flight," said Mrs. Holiday. "Ibelieve I can see the top of it."
Mr. George found, on looking up, that he could distinctly see thelanding at the top of this first flight of steps, his eyes having nowbecome somewhat accustomed to the dim light of the place. He fullyapproved of the plan of going up this flight, and he offered Mrs.Holiday his arm to assist her in the ascent.
"No," said she; "I would rather that you would help Jennie. I will takehold of the baluster, if you will lead Jennie."
This arrangement was adopted, and the whole party soon reached the firstlanding in safety.
In making this ascent, Mrs. Holiday found her fears diminishing ratherthan increasing, which was owing partly to the fact that, as her eyesbecame accustomed to the place, she began to discern the objects aroundher; so she went timidly on, Mr. George preceding her, and encouragingher from time to time by cheering words, up a series of staircases,which twisted and turned by the most devious windings and zigzags,wherever there appeared to be the most convenient openings for themamong the timbers and the masonry. The party stopped from time to timeto rest. At every such halt Mrs. Holiday seemed half discouraged, andpaused to consider anew the question, whether she should go on anyfarther, or return. Mr. George left her entirely at liberty every timeto decide the question just as she pleased; and she always finallyconcluded to go on.
Thus they continued to ascend for more than a hundred feet above thestone gallery; and at length they came out upon another outside gallery,which is formed around the top of the dome, at the foot of what iscalled the lantern. You can see the place of this gallery in theengraving; though it is so high that the gallery itself, thoughsurrounded by a massive balustrade, can scarcely be discerned. A personstanding there would be wholly invisible. This is called the goldengallery. It receives that name from the fact that it is surrounded by agilded balustrade.
Of course the view from this upper gallery was far more extended thanthe one below; but our party did not enjoy it much, it made them sogiddy to look down; and although the gilded balustrade was extremelymassive, and was built into the stonework in the firmest and most solidmanner, Mrs. Holiday, and even Mr. George, were afraid to go near it;and the idea of leaning upon it, to look over, seemed perfectlyfrightful.
There were some young men in the gallery when our party came up. Theywere just preparing to continue their ascent, under the charge of aguide, up to the cupola. The guide seemed desirous of taking all whowere going in one party. So he turned to Mr. George and said,--
"Do your party wish to go up into the ball?"
Mr. George looked towards Mrs. Holiday.
Mrs. Holiday was very unwilling to prevent Mr. George from ascending ashigh as he desired, but she was afraid to go up any farther herself, andshe was unwilling to stay where she was with the children while heshould be gone. It seemed as if the whole of the lofty mass on which shewas standing was toppling, ready to fall, and that the first breath ofwind that should come would blow it down, cupola, dome, and galleries,all together.
"How much farther is it to the top?" said she, timidly.
"A hundred feet," said the guide.
Mrs. Holiday looked more alarmed than ever.
"A hundred feet!" exclaimed Mr. George. "Why, I thought we were nearlyat the top; and yet there are a hundred feet more! A hundred feet isequal to a house ten or twelve stories high!
"I don't know that it is worth while for us to go up any higher,"continued Mr. George, speaking to Mrs. Holiday, "unless you wish it."
"No," said Mrs. Holiday; "I am sure _I_ don't wish to go any higher."
"Very well," said Mr. George to the guide; "we will not go."
So the guide set out with the young men alone.
"There cannot be any pleasure in it, I am sure," said Mr. George.
"No," said Mrs. Holiday; "there is more pain than pleasure in coming up_here_!"
"Nor any advantage, that I can see," added Mr. George.
"Except to be able to say," continued Mrs. Holiday, "when we get back toAmerica, that we have been up into the ball."
"Yes," said Mr. George; "and that, I think, is rather a doubtfuladvantage for a lady. The class of ladies that like to boast of havinggone where other ladies seldom go are generally of rather a masculinecharacter; and I don't think they gain a very desirable kind ofreputation by performing such exploits."
Whether Mr. George was correct or not in this reasoning, it had theeffect of relieving Mrs. Holiday very considerably of any feeling ofdisappointment she might have experienced in not having ascended to thehighest accessible point in the building; and so, after pausing a fewminutes in the golden gallery to take hurried glances at the surroundingviews and to recover breath, the party went back to the inside of thebuilding and commenced the descent. They stopped occasionally to sitdown and rest on the benches which they found placed at convenientdistances, in various nooks and corners, in the course of the descent.They encountered several other parties coming up; and sometimes theywere passed by parties who were going down, and who went faster thanthey. One of these parties consisted of two young men. Mr. George askedthem if they went up into the ball. They said they did. He asked them ifthe ascent was very steep and difficult.
"Yes," said one of the young men; "it made my limbs quake, I can assureyou."
"Did you actually go into the ball?" said Mr. George.
"Yes," said the young man.
"How large is the space inside?" asked Rollo.
"Large enough to hold eight men," said he. "There were six in it when wewere there, and there was room for two more."
If you turn to the engraving, and look at the ball under the cross as itis represented there, you will be surprised to think that it is largeenough to contain eight men; but such is the fact. It is its immenseheight from the ground that makes it appear so small.
Rollo and Jennie began to count the steps as they came down, and theywent on very patiently in this work until they got to between onehundred and sixty and one hundred and seventy; and here, in some way orother, they lost their reckoning, and so gave
up the attempt. Rollo,however, afterwards found from his guide book that the whole number ofsteps from the ground to the ball was six hundred and sixteen.
The party at length reached the floor of the church again in safety.They then went down to see what was called the crypt, which they foundto be nothing more nor less than a range of subterranean chambers,precisely like the cellars of a great house, only they were filled withtombs, and monuments, and old effigies of dead crusaders, some standingup and some lying down, some new and some old, some whole and othersbroken to pieces. The whole place was damp, chilly, and disagreeable;and the party were very glad to escape from it and to get back to thelight of day.