f Duke
William, afterwards William I. of England. The two western towers of the
present cathedral are not exactly similar, and owing to their curious
formation of clustered spires they are not symmetrical. It is for this
reason that they are often described as being unpleasing. I am unable to
echo such criticism, for in looking at the original ideas that are most
plainly manifest in this most astonishing cathedral one seems to be in
close touch with the long forgotten builders and architects whose notions
of proportion and beauty they contrived to stamp so indelibly upon their
masterpiece. From the central tower there is a view over an enormous sweep
of country which includes a stretch of the coast, for Coutances is only
half a dozen miles from the sea. This central tower rises from a square
base at the intersection of the transepts with the nave. It runs up almost
without a break in an octagonal form to a parapet ornamented with open
quatrefoils. The interior has a clean and fresh appearance owing to the
recent restorations and is chiefly remarkable for the balustraded triforium
which is continued round the whole church. In many of the windows there is
glass belonging to the sixteenth century and some dates as early as the
fourteenth century.

Besides the cathedral, the long main street of Coutances possesses the
churches of St Nicholas and St Pierre. In St Nicholas one may see a
somewhat unusual feature in the carved inscriptions dating from early in
the seventeenth century which appear on the plain round columns. Here, as
in the cathedral, the idea of the balustrade under the clerestory is
carried out. The fourteen Stations of the Cross that as usual meet one in
the aisles of the nave, are in this church painted with a most unusual
vividness and reality, in powerful contrast to so many of these crucifixion
scenes to be seen in Roman Catholic churches.

The church of St Pierre is illustrated here, with the cathedral beyond, but
the drawing does not include the great central tower which is crowned by a
pyramidal spire. This church belongs to a later period than the cathedral
as one may see by a glance at the classic work in the western tower, for
most of the building is subsequent to the fifteenth century. St Pierre and
the cathedral form a most interesting study in the development from Early
French architecture to the Renaissance; but for picturesqueness in domestic
architecture Coutances cannot hold up its head with