and roses. The general
effect of the endless cutting up of the vaults into numberless
compartments by the complicated system of lierne ribs is one of
restlessness. One misses the logical simplicity of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries and is reminded of the decadent surfacing of late
German work and the ogee, lierne ribs of some of the late English, in
which the true ridges can no longer be distinguished from the false.

Looking up into the dome over the crossing, we see that the pendentives
do not rise directly above the four arches, but spring some fifteen feet
higher up above a Gothic balustrade which is surmounted by elliptical
arches pierced by circular windows. The dome, disembarrassed of the ribs
which still cling to some of its predecessors, is finely shaped,--a
thorough Renaissance piece of work. Light streams down through the
bull's eye under the lantern.

There is considerable difference in the design as well as workmanship of
the many rejas. Tremendous iron rails, surely not as fine as those of
Seville, Granada, or Toledo, but still very remarkable, close the three
sides of the Capilla Mayor and the front of the choir. The emblematical
lilies of the Cathedral rise in rows one beside the other, as one sees
them in a florist's Easter windows. Rejas close off similarly all the
outer chapels from the side aisles.

Among the very few portions of the old Cathedral which remained intact
after the fury of the Comunidades, were the choir stalls and an
exquisite door. The former were placed in the new choir and the latter
became an entrance to the transplanted cloisters. It was indeed
fortunate that these stalls were spared, for they are among the most
exquisite in Spain and excelled by few in either France or Germany.

Wood-carving had long been a favorite art in Spain, one in which the
Spaniards learned to excel under the skillful tutelage of the great
masters from Germany and Flanders. The foreign carvers settled
principally in Burgos, where there grew up around them apprentices eager
to fill the churches with statues, retablos, choir stalls, and organ
screens executed in wood. The art of carving became highly honored. An
early ordinance of Seville referring to wood-carving, masonry and
building, esteems it "a noble art and self-contained, that increaseth
the nobleness of the King and of his kingdom, that pacifieth the people
and spreadeth love among mankind conducing to much good." In the
numerous panel