Ely, from under the Railway Bridge, by Joseph Pennell (1857-1926)

Ely, from under the Railway Bridge

Joseph Pennell (1857-1926)

1892

Illustration for English Cathedrals (1892)

Other views of Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral from the south-east

Octagon and Lantern, Lady Chapel at left

Scanned image and text by Jacqueline Banerjee

[This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

American-born Joseph Pennell would have been the American art critic and author Mariana Van Rensselaur's natural choice of illustrator for her lovely book on English cathedrals. The text which Pennell illustrates here reads, "One of the best views of the cathedral is from the railroad station; looking northwestward, we see it in the near middle distance, and realize its enormous length, the grace of its octagon, and the stern majesty of the tall tower which rises like a great cliff in a land where man might well build cliffs since nature had built none." After suggesting a couple of other good places from which to view it, Van Rensselaur concludes, "there is, in truth, no spot whence the great monarch of the fenlands may not admirably be seen until we get so far from it that it drops behind the horizon's rim" (220). By picking this particular view, Pennell was able to combine two of his favourite subjects: a river scene and architectural splendour.

Bibliography

Rensselaur, Mariana Schuyler Van. English Cathedrals. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892.

Last modified 29 July 2008