Between the pillars that separate the nave from the side aisles there are ancient tombs, most of which have recumbent statues on them.  One of these is Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, son of Fair Rosamond, in chain mail; and there are many other warriors and bishops, and one cross-legged Crusader, and on one tombstone a recumbent skeleton, which I have likewise seen in two or three other cathedrals.  The pavement of the aisles and nave is laid in great part with flat tombstones, the inscriptions on which are half obliterated, and on the walls, especially in the transepts, there are tablets, among which I saw one to the poet Bowles, who was a canon of the cathedral....

Between the nave and the choir, as usual, there is a screen that half destroys the majesty of the building, by abridging the spectator of the long vista which he might otherwise have of the whole interior at a glance.  We peeped through the barrier, and saw some elaborate monuments in the chancel beyond; but the doors of the screen are kept locked, so that the vergers may raise a revenue by showing strangers through the richest part of the cathedral.  By and by one of these vergers came through the screen with a gentleman and lady whom he was taking around, and we joined ourselves to the party.  He showed us into the cloisters, which had long been neglected and ruinous, until the time of Bishop Dennison, the last prelate, who has been but a few years dead.  This bishop has repaired and restored the cloisters in faithful adherence to the original plan; and they now form a most delightful walk about a pleasant and verdant enclosure, in the center of which sleeps good Bishop Dennison, with a wife on either side of him, all three beneath broad flat stones.

Most cloisters are darksome and grim; but these have a broad paved walk beneath the vista of arches, and are light, airy, and cheerful; and from one corner you can get the best possible view of the whole height and beautiful proportion of the cathedral spire.  On one side of this cloistered walk seems to be the length of the nave of the cathedral.  There is a square of four such sides; and of places for meditation, grave, yet not too somber, it seemed to me one of the best.  While we stayed there, a jackdaw was walking to and fro across the grassy enclosure, and haunting around the good bishop’s grave.  He was clad in black, and looked like a feathered ecclesiastic; but I know not whether it were Bishop Dennison’s ghost or that of some old monk.

On one side of the cloisters, and contiguous to the main body of the cathedral, stands the chapterhouse.  Bishop Dennison had it much at heart to repair this part of the holy edifice; and, if I mistake not, did begin the work; for it had been long ruinous, and in Cromwell’s time his dragoons stationed their horses there.  Little progress, however, had been made in the repairs when the bishop died; and it was decided to restore the building in his honor, and