, where the excellent coloured
glass is seen at its best, it hardly detracts from the general fine
effect of the exterior facade. The western doorways are thoroughly
Renaissance, both inside and out, while the portals themselves offer a
livid suggestion as to what they might have been, were all the bare
niches and blocks filled and mounted with worthy statues. The effect
would have been an undeniable approach to the best matured Gothic, and
would have enhanced greatly this already highly interesting facade. The
buttresses of the choir follow the accepted forms of grace and
effectiveness, and, while not numerous or remarkable as to size, each
springs to a supporting pier gracefully pinnacled and gargoyled. One
instance of the functions of this valuable adjunct to the towering forms
taken by most Gothic structures, is a buttress which springs,
unsymmetrically enough, from the north transept. This rather ungainly
limb flies out like the tentacles of an octopus, grasps a small building
on the opposite side of a narrow roadway, and forms a support to the
irregular construction of the north transept. This was perhaps
necessary as a means of bracing the transept wall, which it might not
have been possible to accomplish otherwise.

The interior presents the unusual feature of the omission of the organ
case from over the western doorway, the organ being in this instance in
the south transept, as at Le Mans. The wall space centered upon the nave
proper is entirely given over to the lozenge-shaped "rose," which, in
spite of its rather heavy framing and kaleidoscopic and patchworky
glass, is withal effective beyond many more gracefully formed openings,
where the glass is either too severely plain, or worked into a supposed
design, which, by reason of its minute particles, is undecipherable. The
design and arrangement of a series of lancets supporting the lozenge
would be remarkable, were it in company with the best glass of the
middle ages. It depicts an "Adoration" in which kings, saints, and
bishops are modelled brilliantly, and with evidence of much good
drawing, a detail often wanting in old, or, for that matter, modern
glass.

The glass of the choir, on the other hand, is far better in arrangement,
and shows deep, rich particles which are only at their best in the work
of the early period here shown. In this glass are depicted the arms of
St. Louis, Blanche of Castile, and of the City of Tours. The choir
itself widens out fr