OF  all  the  romantic  towns  in  Wessex,  Wintoncester  is
probably  the  most  convenient  for  meditative  people  to
live  in ;  since  there  you  have  a  cathedral  with  a  nave  so
long  that  it  affords  space  in  which  to  walk  and  summon
your  remoter  moods  without  continually  turning  on  your
heel,  or  seeming  to  do  more  than  take  an  afternoon  stroll
under  cover  from  the  rain  or  sun.  In  an  uninterrupted
course  of  nearly  three  hundred  steps  eastward,  and  again
nearly  three  hundred  steps  westward  amid  those  magni-
ficent tombs,  you  can,  for  instance,  compare  in  the  most
leisurely  way  the  dry  dustiness  which  ultimately  pervades
the  persons  of  kings  and  bishops  with  the  damper  dusti-
ness that  is  usually  the  final  shape  of  commoners,
curates,  and  others  who  take  their  last  rest  out  of  defers.
Then,  if  you  are  in  love,  you  can,  by  sauntering  in  the
chapels  and  behind  the  episcopal  chantries  with  the
bright-eyed  one,  so  steep  and  mellow  your  ecstasy  in  the
solemnities  around,  that  it  will  assume  a  rarer  and  finer
tincture,  even  more  grateful  to  the  understanding,  if  not
to  the  senses,  than  that  form  of  the  emotion  which  arises


A  GROUP  OF  NOBLE  DAMES

from  such  companionship  in  spots  where  all  is  life,  and
growth,  and  fecundity.
