The diary of George Borrow, rector of East Dereham in Norfolk, tells of his brief visit here:

So my little family started for Wales on the afternoon of 17th July. We flew through parts of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire in a train which we left at Ely and, getting into another which did not fly quite so fast as the one we had quitted, reached Peterborough station at about 6 o'clock of a delightful evening. We proceeded no further in our journey that day in order that we might have the opportunity of seeing the cathedral. Sallying arm in arm from the Station Hotel we crossed a bridge over the deep quiet Nene, on the southern bank of which stands the station, and soon arrived at the cathedral. Unfortunately we were too late to procure admission into the interior and had to content ourselves with walking round it and surveying the outside. Nothing in architecture can be conceived more beautiful than the principal entrance which fronts the West and which, at the time we saw it, was gilded with the rays of the setting sun. After having strolled about the edifice surveying it until we were weary we returned to our inn, and after taking an excellent supper, retired to rest.

(Russell, John, Fair Spot and Goodly - Visitor's impressions of Peterborough, Peterborough Arts Council, 1984)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.