and you may follow it
from the south transept, eastward, round to the north transept, after
which they have not taken such great pains in their regularity. It is
almost impossible to distinguish where they could have left off, for
it is hardly to be supposed they could have gone on with all at the
same time."

If at first sight this regular and symmetrical detail offers a
suspicion of mere mechanism, yet it is no less evident that after
longer study the charms of this exquisite structure tell with a
lasting power. Too subtle to extort admiration at first, it bewitches
a student of architecture who notes the scholarly reticence of its
detail, the masterly way in which, as a rule, the construction is
legitimately ornamented and the decoration made an integral part of
the whole design.

=The Tower=, with its famous spire, needs no apologist to justify its
claim to be considered the most beautiful, not merely in England, but
in Europe. From the time Leland naively wrote, "the tower of stone and
the high pyramis of stone on it is a noble and memorable 'peace' of
work," every critic of the cathedral praises the tower unreservedly,
although Defoe was anxious to improve it, for he said: "The beauty of
it is hurt by a thing easily to be remedied, which is this. The glass
in the several windows being very old, has contracted such a rust,
that it is scarcely to be distinguished from the stone walls;
consequently, it appears as if there were no lights at all in the
tower, but only recesses in the stone, whereas could the windows be
glazed with squares and kept clean, which might be done, they would be
plainly visible at a distance, and not only so, but from the adjacent
hills you would see the light quite through the tower, which would
have a very fine effect." It is curious to remember that perfectly as
it accords with the rest of the pile, so that it seems the very
central motive of the whole scheme, yet it is really an addition. Like
the touch of genius which by one word changes a good poem to a
flawless lyric, so the creator of this crown to an already beautiful
building by his final touch seems to have imparted additional beauty
to that which already existed. The first idea was doubtless to add a
lantern after the style of Ely, or at most a wooden spire. That the
lower part of the tower is part of the original design, and intended
to be open to the church, is proved by the presence of a series of
detached Purbeck marble col