The Dean’s Handbook to Gloucester Cathedral: Illustrated

Excerpt from the book:
In this little handbook, the writer (save in a few special instances) has designedly omitted the usual notices of monuments devoid of public interest, he has ruled out all wordy descriptions of ordinary stained-glass windows, and generally takes no notice of objects which do not possess any remarkable architectural or historical features.Attention, however, is specially directed to, and careful descriptions are given of well-nigh everything in this ancient abbey (cathedral) of real beauty and of historic interest.One of fane Austen’s very commonplace, but at the same time very lovable heroines, Miss Catherine Morland, in Northanger Abbey, ingenuously confesses “that she likes nothing in the world so well as novels, particularly if horrid, and that she has always felt a profound compassion for historians, who only write books which they must be aware could be of no use but to torment children.”The writer of the present story of Gloucester Cathedral, aware that something akin to the sentiments of Miss Morland, perhaps unconsciously, colours the thoughts of a good many minds, gravely advises the reader to skip the first chapter of this little book, which deals with the very early history of Gloucester and its great church, and to start with Chapter II.

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