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.A.

Corbeille.

"Gothic churches on a grand scale are as abundant in the Netherlands as they are at home, but to find one of them drawn or described in any of the otherwise comprehensive architectural works, which appear from time to time, is the rarest of experiences.