Elizabeth, in 1572, and in St. Crux, one of Wren's churches, his remains
lie buried, beneath a dark blue slab which is shown to visitors. A few
miles away, but easily within reach of your vision, is the field of
Marston Moor, where the impetuous Prince Rupert imperiled and well-nigh
lost the cause of King Charles the First in 1644; and as you look toward
that fatal spot you almost hear, in the chamber of your fancy, the paeans
of thanksgiving for the victory, that were uttered in the church beneath.
Cromwell, then a subordinate officer in the Parliamentary army, was one of
the worshipers. Of the fifteen kings, from William of Normandy to Henry of
Windsor, whose sculptured effigies appear upon the chancel screen in York
Minster, there is scarcely one who has not worshiped in this cathedral....

There it stands, symbolizing, as no other object on earth can ever do,
except one of its own great kindred, the promise of immortal life to man
and man's pathetic faith in that promise. Dark and lonely it comes back
upon my vision, but during all hours of its daily and nightly life
sentient, eloquent, vital, participating in all the thought, conduct, and
experience of those who dwell around it....

York is the loftiest of all the English cathedrals, and the third in
length,--both St. Alban's and Winchester being longer. The present
structure is 600 years old, and more than 200 years were occupied in the
building of it. They show you, in the crypt, some fine remains of the
Norman church that preceded it on the same site, together with traces of
the still older Saxon church that preceded the Norman. The first one was
of wood, and was totally destroyed. The Saxon remains are a fragment of
stone staircase and a piece of wall built in the ancient herring-bone
fashion. The Norman remains are four clustered columns, embellished in the
zig-zag style. There is not much of commemorative statuary at York, and
what there is of it was placed chiefly in the chancel.