population was 16,512, and the inhabited houses 2854. Singularly enough, there is a decrease of population since 1851 amounting to 1060, and an increase of houses amounting to 11.

As might be expected from its antiquity, Gloucester abounds in objects of interest. Most of its quaint old wooden-fronted houses have been swept away to make room for buildings of a modern and more convenient description; but it has still all its real attractions in its cathedral, churches, and other edifices.

THE CATHEDRAL.-Like most similar structures, the cathedral of Gloucester owes its origin to an early monastic establishment. Osric, the viceroy or "subregulus" of Ethelred, king of Mercia, called himself "rex" on the tomb which bears his crowned and sceptred effigy, on the left of the altar, founded a nunnery here in 681. This establishment was dispersed in 767, and the building lay desolate till 821, when it was restored as an abbey for secular canons by Beowulph, king of Mercia. In 1022 Canute changed the constitution of the monastery, transferring it to monks of the Benedictine order. At the Dissolution, in 1539, the income of the monastery was valued at £1550. Two years later the see of Gloucester was erected by Henry VIII., the abbey church, re-dedicated to the Holy Trinity, becoming its cathedral.

The most noted of the abbots of the original foundation were-Gilbert Foliot (1139-1148), the opponent of Becket; and Walter Froucester, the historian of the

abbey (1381-1412). Robert of Gloucester, author of a rhyming "Chronicle of England," was a monk of this abbey.

Among the bishops there are several names of distinction. John Hooper, appointed to the see in 1551, was burnt as a heretic by the Papists, Feb. 9, 1555. Miles Smith (1612-1624) was "a deep divine, great linguist, who had more than a single share in the last translation of the Bible." Besides having, conjointly with Bishop Bilston, the task of finally revising the translation, Dr. Smith, as Fuller quaintly puts it, "was enjoined to make the preface to the translation as a comely gate to a glorious city, which remains under his own hand in the University Library in Oxford." The Bible was published in 1611, and the following year Dr. Smith was elevated to the see of Gloucester. William Warburton, author of "The Divine Legation of Moses," "Julian," and many other works, is the most noted of the bishops who have occupied this see. He was born in 1698, was raised to the see of Gloucester in 1760, and died in 1779. There is a tablet to his memory at the west end of the north aisle of nave.

The see of Gloucester had that of Bristol added to. it in 1836. The cathedral has undergone various modern restorations, but these have not been extensive, and they have in general been carried out with good taste.

The examination of this imposing edifice may be fitly commenced with a survey of its EXTERIOR. The cathedral is well situated, the lawn by which it is sur

rounded affording many points from which a good general view may be obtained. The best views are from the north-west and the south-east. The outline of the building, as a whole, comes out with much picturesqueness and beauty from either of these points, and the more prominent details of the various parts can be noted in their bearing on the general effect. The cathedral* consists of nave, with aisles; transepts, with chapels; choir, with aisles and chapels; Lady chapel, with two chantries; a tower at the intersection of the transepts, with the nave and choir; a south porch; cloisters and chapterhouse. The original church terminated at its east end with an apse, containing a centre and two side chapels, as the crypt below, quite corresponding in plan with the old choir, still shows. Much of the original Norman building remains, as will be found on a survey either of the

It may be useful for the tourist to have here, in one view, the various dimensions of the cathedral:

It was

exterior or of the interior. The features, however, which most attract the eye on an external survey are Perpendicular. The West Front was erected by John Morwent, who was abbot of the monastery from 1420 to 1437. Some of the details of the large Perpendicular window, particularly its pierced buttresses and parapets of open work, are deserving of notice. The South Porch was the work of the same abbot, and is in the same style of architecture, but much richer in its ornamentation. It has a chamber in its upper part, and is decorated with niches, canopies, and pinnacles. The mullions of the side windows are the continuation of internal panelling of the walls. The South Aisle is a very fine example of Early Decorated. altered to its present style under the abbacy of John Thokey (1306-1329); and the richness of its ornamentation is, no doubt, very much owing to the liberality of pilgrims to the shrine of Edward II., whose body was interred here after his barbarous murder in Berkeley Castle. The buttresses have on them a series of finelysculptured figures. Passing on to the South Transept, the tourist may observe that the Perpendicular work, which is the main characteristic of this part of the cathedral, has not wholly obliterated the Norman, which it supersedes. The gable above the south window is filled with a series of round-headed arches, one row above another. This large window has good Perpendicular tracery. The turrets on either side of this front are Norman, with interlacing arcades in their upper part. It was under Abbot Wygemore (1329