Its cathedral is the only church in Holland
(with the exception of the desecrated fane at Veere) for the privilege
of entering which I was not asked to pay. I have an uneasy feeling
that it was an oversight, and that if by any chance this statement
meets an authoritative eye some one may be removed to one of the
penal establishments and steps be taken to collect my debt. But so
it was. And yet it is possible that the free right of entrance is
intentional; since to charge for a building so unpardonably disfigured
would be a hardy action. The Gothic arches have great beauty, but it is
impossible from any point to get more than a broken view on account of
the high painted wooden walls with which the pews have been enclosed.
The cathedral is only a fragment; the nave fell in, isolating the
bell tower, during a tempest in 1674, and by that time all interest
in churches as beautiful and sacred buildings having died out of
Holland, never to return, no effort was made to restore it. But it
must, before the storm, have been superb, and of a vastness superior
to any in the country.
I find a very pleasant passage upon Holland's great churches, and
indeed upon its best architecture in general, in an essay on Utrecht
Cathedral by Mr. L.
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