Cathedral Church of Wells by Esther Singleton

EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN

In every place which boasts of a cathedral church, that cathedral / church is commonly the chief object of interest, alike as its present / ornament and as the chief centre of its past history. But in Wells / the cathedral church and its appurtenances are yet more. Their / interest is not only primary, but absorbing. They are not only the / chief ornament of the place; they are the place itself. They are not / only the centre of the past history of the city; their history is the / history of the city. Of our other cities some can trace up a long / history as cities independent of their ecclesiastical foundations. Some / were the dwelling-places of Kings in days before England became one / kingdom. Some have been for ages seats of commerce or manufactures; / their history is the history of burghers striving for and obtaining / their freedom, a history which repeats in small that same tale of / early struggles and later abuses which forms the history of so many / greater commonwealths. Others have a long military history; their / name at once suggests the memory of battles and sieges, and they can / still show walls and castles as the living memorials of the stirring / scenes of bygone times. In others even the ecclesiastical pre-eminence / of the cathedral church may be disputed by some other ecclesiastical / building.