letter, can place before the reader's mind this enormous edifice. Its
total length is 520 feet--Westminster Abbey is more than 100 feet less. As
we enter, the immensity of it grows. It is a beautiful theory that these
great Gothic churches, as outgrowths of the spirit of Christianity, in
their largeness and in the forms of their windows and aisles, were meant
to represent the universality and lofty ideals of the Christian faith.
Pagans worshiped largely in family temples which none but the rich could
build. The new faith opened its temples to all men, and it built churches
large enough for all classes and conditions to enter and find room.

Two styles of architecture are shown in the interior of Canterbury, Norman
and Early Gothic. In the former style are the transept, choir and Becket
chapel, each with its noble series of lofty columns and arches. Beneath
the choir and chapel is a crypt, also Norman and the oldest part of the
cathedral, some of it undoubtedly dating from St. Augustine's time. He is
known to have built a church soon after his arrival upon ground formerly
occupied by Christians in the Roman army, and this is believed to be its
site. The crypt, in a splendid state of preservation, extends under the
entire Norman portion of the building.

When the Gothic style came into vogue, succeeding the Norman, the
remainder of the present edifice was added. Either part--Norman or
Gothic--would in itself make a large church. One will meet few grander
naves anywhere than this Gothic nave in Canterbury, formed of white stone
and wonderfully symmetrical in all its outlines. A screen, richly wrought,
divides the Norman from the Gothic part. Two flights of stone steps lead
from one to the other. It will not be easy to forget the impression made
that dark December morning when I entered the little doorway of this
cathedral and first walked down its long, gray, lofty nave to this flight
of steps. The chanting in the choir of the morning service which echoed