Gloucester

Gloucester a cathedral city of England, on the Severn, 107 miles northwest of London. The cathedral is of several different eras of ecclesiastical architecture, 427 feet in length, and 144 in width; the height of the central tower, its greatest external ornament, is 225 feet; the cloisters, also of great beauty, form a large square. Formerly the church of a Benedictine abbey, it was converted into a cathedral in 1541. Gloucester is the official residence of the bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, whose diocese embraces Gloucestershire, and parts of Somersetshire and Wiltshire. The diocese belongs to the province of Canterbury, and in 1890 had 13 deaneries, 489 benefices, 190 curates, and about 210,000 church sittings. The incumbent (1890) is Charles John Ellicott, D.D. (consecrated in 1863).