How shall I convey to you a summary, and yet a satisfactory, description of
it? It cannot be done. You love old churches, old books, and relics of
ancient art. These be my themes, therefore: so fancy yourself either
strolling leisurely with me, arm in arm, in the streets--or sitting at my
elbow. First for THE CATHEDRAL:--for what traveller of taste does not doff
his bonnet to the _Mother Church_ of the town through which he happens to
be travelling--or in which he takes up a temporary abode? The
west-front,[36] always the _forte_ of the architect's skill, strikes you as
you go down, or come up, the principal street--_La Rue des Carmes_,--which
seems to bisect the town into equal parts. A small open space, (which
however has been miserably encroached upon by petty shops) called the
_Flower-garden_, is before this western front; so that it has some little
breathing room in which to expand its beauties to the wondering eyes of the
beholder. In my poor judgment, this western front has very few elevations
comparable with it[37]--including even those of _Lincoln_ and _York_. The
ornaments, especially upon the three porches, between the two towers, are
numerous, rich, and for the greater part entire:--in spite of the
Calvinists,[38] the French revolution, and time. Among the lower and
smaller basso-relievos upon these porches, is the subject of the daughter
of Herodias dancing before Herod. She is manoeuvering on her hands, her
feet being upwards. To the right, the decapitation of St. John is taking
place.

The southern transept makes amends for the defects of the northern. The
space before it is devoted to a sort of vegetable market: curious old
houses encircle this space: and the ascent to the door, but more especially
the curiously sculptured porch itself, with the open spaces in the upper
part--light, fanciful and striking to a degree--produce an effect as
pleasing as it is extraordinary. Add to this, the ever-restless feet of
devotees, going in and coming out--the worn pavement, and the frittered
ornaments, in consequence--seem to convince you that the ardour and
activity of devotion is almost equal to that of business.[39]

As you enter the cathedral, at the centre door, by descending two steps,
you are struck with the length and loftiness of the nave, and with the
lightness of the gallery which runs along the upper part of it. Perhaps the
nave is too narrow for its length. The lantern of the central large tower
is bea