THE NEW WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 18, 4 May 1899, Page 10

THE NEW WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL.

Few people in this Colony are aware of the magnificent dimensions of the new Westminster Cathedral, or of the progress which ha* been made in its erection. A recent issue of the London Tablet gives many interesting particulars of this new Cathedral, which, when finished, need not shrink from comparison with any of the old cathedrals of England. The outer walls of the Cathedral now stand at 85ft from the pavement, and the arches to carry the domes are now being turned. In like way the walla of the aisles, chapels, transepts, and monks' choir are up to the copings — in fact, speaking generally, it may be said that thy great fabric is ready for the roof. There is no reason why the whole Cathedral should not be roofed in by the close of the present year, an I ready for opening on the Golden Jubilee of the Hierarchy, the 29th of September, 1900. It is not a question of time, but of money. Over £90,000 has been received, and of that sum only £7000 remains in hand. One effort is wanted to carry the work beyond the reach of failure, and then the Catholics of England may feel that they are in possession of an edifice of which their children's children shall be proud. For it is not a little thing that has been done, or some second-rate Cathedral that is in question. If we take the superficial area of the nave, or its width, or its height, there ia not a church or cathedral in England, ancient or modern, which in any of these respects can vie wich the building now being raised at Westminster. It will be of interest to record that up to date 9,300,000 bricks have been laid, requiring 12,000 toes of sand, and 3000 tons of Portland cement for mortar. In addition to the above 42,000 cubic feet of Portland stone have been used in the dressings. There will be 12 altars in the Cathedral in addition to the High Altar, as there were 12 Apostles around our Lord, They will be dedicated to different objects, and will bring out and feed different Catholic devotions. So far five chapels have been appropriated. The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament is being collected for by the Rev. Kenelm Vaughan, who got nearly £4000 in Spain for this object, and is at present in South America soliciting subscriptions. The cost of the structure of this chapel is put down at £5000, and £7000 or £8000 will be needed for its becoming decoration, which will be rich in mosaics and marbles. The chapel of Our Lady, has already been provided for more handsomely than any other. In the year 1871 the Baroness Weld died, bequeathing over £11,000 for a memorial chapel in the Cathedral of Westminster. With accumulated interest the sum now amounts to more than £17,000. The cost of erecting and adorning the chapel of St. Joseph has been generously undertaken by Mr. Weld Blundell. Lord Brampton, of Brampton, more generally known as Sir Henry Hawkins, the famous Judge, who, in recognition of his great services to his country has been laised to the Peerage, is the Founder of the Chantry, dedicated to St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine his disciple. There is yet one more chapel already undertaken and appropriated, that of the Holy Souls. Mrs. Robert Walmesley, who has taken the Benedictine veil at East Bergholt, founds this Chantry on behalf of her late husband, and of the souls in Purgatory. ' Europe has been laid under tribute for the marble columns required for the interior of the Cathedral. Altogether thirty-four columns, each thirteen feet high, will be required for the arcade of the aisles, dividing the chapels from the nave ; they will also carry the groining of the aisles and the floors of the galleries. These columns, each a single stone, will be of great beauty and of infinite variety. Besides the vcrdo ant tea columns from Thessaly there will be others of another and more delicate shade of green, the famous Cipollino marble, from Switzerland and Euboea, from the quarries near Verona will come the Brescia marbles, purple and grey aud yellow with streaks of white, while the columns supporting the gallery, where it crosses the transepts, will be supplied by Egypt and show the red and orange of the Nuinidian marble. From a comparative table, showing area, height, and width of naves of the principal English cathedrals, as compared with the new Westminister Cathedral, we can iealise to some extent its fine proportions and great dimensions. York Minster has the largest rave area of the old cathedrals of England, but it falls short by 800 sqnare feet of the new W« stminster, which is nearly double the size of St. Paul's, and is two-thirds more than the Brompton Oratory. Its, total breadth across the nave and aisles is 150 ft, which is nearly double that of Salisbury. The wiills are 109 ft high, or 4ft higher than Westminster Abbey, which up to the present was the highest of iiuy of the great churches of England. In a word, its naVe area will only fall short of the combined nave areas of St. Paul's and Wes minster Abbey by about six hundred feet.