eorges. On the angles of one, which contains
four storks, arranged in pairs, will be found an obvious representation
of the heraldic fleur-de-lys. In that, figured below it on the plate, is
a head placed over two lions, commonly believed to be intended for a
portrait of the Conqueror.

[Illustration: Plate 28. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_Arches under the central Tower looking from the South Transept._]

[Illustration: Plate 29. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_East side of the South Transept._]

The _twenty-eighth_ and _twenty-ninth plates_ are devoted to the
transepts: the first of them exhibits two of the arches which support
the central tower. Finer specimens of the kind are scarcely to be seen
in Normandy; and the decoration of them is very peculiar, consisting
altogether of numerous bands of quatrefoils in bas-relief. The sculpture
of the capitals is likewise remarkable: that of one of them represents
entire rams; while the opposite one has only the heads of the same
animal at its angles, accompanied with an ornament, which the writer of
this article does not remember to have met with elsewhere. The arch that
separates the tower from the nave,[64] rises higher than any of the
rest, and is obtusely pointed; but its decorations correspond with those
of the others, and it appears to be of the same date.[65] For the
purpose of more effectually marking the connection of the _twenty-eighth
plate_ with the preceding, it may be well to observe, that the
string-course, seen in the former through the first arch and adjoining
the base of the truncated column, is the same which, in _plate
twenty-seven_, forms the base-line of the windows. The same
string-course in the choir runs immediately below the gallery; but in
the transepts, this gallery is upon a different line, being elevated by
the interposition of a very beautiful range of small blank arches,
between the larger arches below and the windows of the clerestory; and
these latter, in conjunction with the small arches, only occupy the same
space as the windows of the choir. The southern transept has been here
selected for publication, as being the most perfect. Had the opposite
one been equally so, it would have been preferable, from the
curious character of its capitals, many of which are taken from
scripture-history. But these are, unfortunately, much mutilated.

[Illustration: Plate 30. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_