rench Gothic, though carried out in later days when its vigor was
waning. It has not been cramped nor distorted by initial limitation of
space or conditions, nor injured by later deviations from the original
conception. It is worthy of the great masters who planned once for all
the loveliest and most expressive house for the worship of God. Erected
on the plains of Leon, it was conceived in the inspired provinces of
Champagne and the Isle de France.

It has a total length of some 308 feet and a width of nave and aisles of
83. The height to the centre of nave groining is 100 feet. The western
front has two towers, which, curiously enough, as in Wells Cathedral,
flank the side aisles, thus necessitating in elevation a union with the
upper portions of the facade by means of flying buttresses.

There is a fine view of the exterior of the church from across the
square facing the southwestern angle. A row of acacia plumes and a
meaningless, eighteenth-century iron fence conceal the marble paving
round the base, but this foreground sinks to insignificance against the
soaring masses of stone towers and turrets, buttresses and pediments,
stretching north and east. Both facades have been considerably restored,
the later Renaissance and Baroque atrocities having been swept away in a
more refined and sensitive age, when the portions of masonry which fell,
owing to the flimsiness of the fabric, were rebuilt. The result has,
however, been that great portions, as for instance in the western front
and the entire central body above the portals, jar, with the chalky
whiteness of their surfaces by the side of the time-worn masonry. They
lack the exquisite harmony of tints, where wind and sun and water have
swept and splashed the masonry for centuries.

The two towers that flank the western front in so disjointed a manner
are of different heights and ages. Both have a heavy, lumbering quality
entirely out of keeping with the aerial lightness of the remainder of
the church. It is not quite coarseness, but rather a stiff-necked,
pompous gravity. Their moldings lack vigor and sparkle. The play of
fancy and sensitive decorative treatment are wanting. The northern tower
is the older and has an upper portion penetrated by a double row of
round and early pointed windows. An unbroken octagonal spire crowns it,
the angles of the intersection being filled by turrets, as uninteresting
as Prussian sentry-boxes. The southern tower, though lighter and