569.—Staircase in the Conventual Buildings, Canterburydetails

Look at Canterbury [Cathedral]. How many changes of architectural taste are not there visible; how many different periods of architectural history may not there be traced: yet is the effect anywhere discordant?—Oh, he were indeed presumptious who should say so. Is it not rather in the highest degree grand and impressive, conveying at once to the mind that sense of subline repose which belongs only to works of essential unity? We need not subjoin any detailed architectural descriptions. The Cathedral is pleasantly situated in an extensive court, surrounded by gardens, cemetery, the deanery and prebendal houses, and what remains of the archiepiscopal palace, and of other buildings connected with the Cathedral, among which may be mentioned the Staircase (Fig. 569).” (p. 154)