monarch is the most ancient royal sepulchre extant in England, and occupies a portion of the centre aisle of the cathedral choir, and is kept in excellent preservation. The choir itself is grand, and contains some curious ornaments in the shape of the armorial bearings of the Houses of York and Lancaster after the union of the two families. There are some splendid monuments in the transepts and nave, and one to Bishop Hough, by Roubiliac, is as fine a piece of sculpture as can be found to adorn a tomb. The principal figure is that of the divine supported by an angel, who is in the act of flying and pointing the way to heaven; below is the representation of the trial of the seven bishops in the days of James the Second, and the arrangement and grouping are masterpieces of design. Religion is holding a Bible in her hand, and watching, with a calm expressive face, the deliberations of the judges, while Justice pleads with dignity the cause of Protestantism. The artist has surpassed himself in this splendid effort of the chisel, and produced a group that would make any man immortal in America. There is also in the building a fine female figure, by Chantrey, over the tomb of the deceased wife of a clergyman. The nave and side aisles contain the effigies of several crusaders, wearing coats of chain-armor; but the names of those to whom they were erected are unknown, and the stranger gazes upon the marble figures deeply impressed with the uncertainty of worldly fame and posthumous glory. The cloisters of the cathedral are richly groined, and of quadrangular form; the court-yard in the centre being used for burial purposes. Many repairs have recently been made in the sacred edifices of the country, but none of them impress the mind more with the ancient glory of the cathedrals than the restorations in the cloisters. The solemn aspect they present when completely restored to their former condition is impressive in the extreme, and it does not require a lively imagination to people them with the brethren of the rosary and cowl.

I ascended the tower of the edifice by a series of staircases, and, after viewing the eight heavy bells which swing within its walls, continued up to the leads, from which I enjoyed an extensive prospect of the city, including the hills of Malvern, with the towns of the same name which nestle at their feet; the valley of the sinuous Severn, with its meadows and bright villages, and the distant mountains of Wales.

In my walks around the city, I observed several objects, besides the cathedral, worthy of note; one of them being a stone tower of solid masonry, erected near the minster, and wearing the appearance of having been at one time a portion of what may be considered the city walls. It is a massive affair, built like a city gate over one of the principal streets, with turrets at the tops and port-holes for defence. The Guildhall of the city is highly ornamented in front, and there is a profusion of gilding upon some of the scroll-work, and a statue of Queen Anne, which occupies a niche at an elevation of some feet above the principal doorway, at the sides of which are wooden statues of Charles the First and Charles the Second, both of whom wear their crowns with apparent ease, a thing neither of them was able to do during the entire term of their natural lives.

The Foregate, or main street, is nearly straight, but irregular in its width, but still a fine avenue, and busy withal. The clear atmosphere, the clean houses and streets, the gay shops, the numerous churches, rapid Severn, and old cathedral, make Worcester a pleasant place for the stranger, and a credit to its inhabitants.

CHAPTER XXX.

COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS-GLOUCESTER AND ITS CATHEDRAL

-HOSTELRIES.

THERE is a class of men in England who may be regarded as native, and almost incapable of existing in any other land. I mean those known as Commercial Travellers. They are gentlemen; generally well educated, and never illiterate. Shrewd, active, business men, always on the move; and real birds of passage-now in the south, in a few days away to the west, or traversing the eastern or northern counties. They all live at good hotels, and on the best the markets afford, meanness in living being no trait in their character, and niggardliness scouted by all. Their combined patronage will build up a hotel, and particular houses in each town receive their support. The landlords treat them with great respect, and servants pay them particular attention. They keep late hours, enjoying the amusements of the places in which they remain at night, seldom rise early, breakfast at fashionable times, dine late and sumptuously, wines being indispensable at dinner, and dress genteelly, but neither foppishly or in the current fashion of the day. They travel in second-class carriages, and go from the railway stations to hotels in cabs or flies, seldom or never condescending to walk. They are affable, courteous, friendly, and humorous. When in cities where business requires attention, they perform their duty first, and make all other things subservient to their particular calling. They are well informed, and therefore liberal-minded, freely enter into conversation with strangers, and readily accommodate themselves to the society into which they are thrown. Constant intercourse with the inhabitants of remote sections of the land and strangers makes them a distinct class, and they meet the natives of the extremes of their own island with a friendly spirit, always overlooking sectional peculiarities and sinking their early prejudices. They regard foreigners as brothers, and treat a Frenchman, a German, or an American with as much cordiality as one of their own countrymen. They know no distinctions among men except in manners, and without the chilling reserve of the untravelled and pompous Englishman, they possess all the selfrespect and good behavior of the well-informed and dignified man, and never transgress the laws of gentility. Many of them speak French, or German, have travelled on the Continent and in Ireland, and converse fluently on most subjects. They are strict disciplinarians at the houses in which they stop, and have a method of recognition amounting to freemasonry. They travel almost constantly, and seldom remain longer in a town than their business requires. Take them as a class, and they assuredly are a peculiar one, they are eminently original and distinct from the balance of their countrymen. But enough of their habits and customs; let me tell you who and what they are, if possible. They are attachés of mercantile establishments and manufactories in the large cities and towns, and travel through the country, making sales by sample. They ordinarily receive a guinea per day for expenses, which accounts for their liberal style of living, and in addition to which they receive salaries according to their capacities, varying from one hundred to eight hundred pounds per annum. Many of them are married, but their almost constant absence from home estranges them in a great measure from their families. But few of them accumulate fortunes, in consequence of the expensive habits they acquire in the performance of their duty, and numbers of them die prematurely, leaving small and destitute children to the tender mercies of a selfish world. They have beneficial societies, and support one or more schools for the education of the orphans of deceased members, to which they contribute liberally and are very attentive. In some cases, they entertain high notions, and never lower their dignity by patronizing a third-rate house, considering themselves degraded by doing so. This comes from their employment and associations, and necessarily so, as English society is constituted; for the buyer will not make his purchases so readily from the Travellers who stop at the third-rate as he will from those who frequent the second-class inns, and therefore it is the interest of the Commercial, in both a business and personal point of view, to take up his abode in those hotels to which the majority give the preference, and to which purchasers usually repair.

In their intercourse with society, they endeavor to make them- selves agreeable, knowing well that cheerfulness and sociability, blended with good breeding, will advance their interests greatly. This may be considered selfish by some; but charity will lead the liberal mind to conclude that there is less of that spirit in it than a disposition to be on good terms with all men. In my intercourse with them, I found them as described, and never rude or uncourteous-a thing I cannot say of some of their countrymen with whom I met, who appeared to consider themselves made of superior clay to that used in the composition of the Com

mercial Traveller. On the journey from Worcester to Gloucester, I became acquainted with one of the best of his class, and as he was an intelligent, sociable man, we grew quite friendly, and rode to Gloucester in company, where, while he attended to his duties, I rambled about, visiting the most interesting and important objects in the city and vicinity.

Gloucester is situate on a plain near the Severn, and presents an air of cleanliness and beauty never met with in the large manufacturing towns of the north. In fact, the cities of the south and west of England, with one or two exceptions only, are different in nearly every particular from those of the midland and northern counties. This comes from the absence of great woollen, cotton, and iron manufactories, and the small amount of black, filthy coal soot and smoke like that which rises in such density from the tall chimneys of the steam-engines and workshops at the north.

The principal streets of the city cross each other at right angles, but they are not uniform in width, and, consequently, far from pleasing. The peaked gables, projecting windows, arched ways, and great court-yards of three or four old hostelries, in certain sections, carry the observer back in imagination to the times when men made pilgrimages to the shrines of saints, and weary, dusty travellers, with staff and scrip, wallets and sumpter-loads, thronged the court-yard, or passed the hours in noisy conversation in the large rooms where the guests met in common. But the old is being blended with the new, and the hostelrie will, ere long, disappear. Improvement is visible in Gloucester even now, and commerce is enlarging her limits. A ship canal unites her docks with the Severn, and vessels from the West Indies, United States, and other foreign lands lie side by side at her wharves. Her docks are ample to accommodate several hundred vessels, and there are some large warehouses adjoining, equal in dimensions to those of Liverpool, but far superior in appearance.

The great architectural feature of Gloucester is the cathedral, a grand specimen of Gothic masonry. The tower is highly enriched with windows and ornamental mouldings, graceful pinnacles, and fine parapets. The body of the edifice is in character