FIRE AT YORK CATHEDRAL.

(_For the Mirror._)


Ut Rosa flos florum
Sic est domus ista domorum.


Such was the encomium bestowed on the venerable pile of York Minster by
an old monkish writer; but, alas! what a change is there in the space
of a few short hours; what a scene of desolation, what a lesson of the
instability of sublunary things and the vanity of human grandeur! The
glory of the city of York, of England, yea, almost of Europe, is now,
through the fanaticism of a modern Erostratus, rendered comparatively
a pile of ruin; but still

"Looks great in ruin, noble in decay."


This is the third time that this magnificent structure has been assailed
by fire; twice it has been totally destroyed; but, like another phoenix,
it has again risen from its ashes in a greater degree of splendour. A
period of nearly seven hundred years has now elapsed since the last of
these occurrences; and the present fabric has but now narrowly escaped
sharing the fate of its predecessors.

The damage which the Minster has sustained is not, perhaps, of
so great a magnitude as, from the first appearance of the fire, might
have been anticipated. The destruction is principally confined to the