o a point between
Tours and Orleans, then southwesterly to Lyons, and thence along the
valley of the Rhone to Geneva."

With such a justification, then, it is natural that some arbitrary
division should be made in arranging the subject matter of a volume
which treats, in part only, of a country or its memorials; even though
the influences of one section may not only have lapped over into the
other, but, as in certain instances, extended far beyond. As the peoples
were divided in speech, so were they in their manner of building, and
the most thoroughly consistent and individual types were in the main
confined to the environment of their birth. A notable exception is found
in Brittany, where is apparent a generous admixture of style which does
not occur in the churches of the first rank; referring to the imposing
structures of the Isle de France and its immediate vicinity. The "Grand
Cathedrals" of this region are, perhaps, most strongly impressed upon
the mind of whoever takes something more than a superficial interest in
the subject as the type which embodies the loftiest principles of
Gothic forms, and, as such, they are perhaps best remembered by that
very considerable body of persons known as intelligent observers.

The strongest influences at work in the north from the twelfth century
onward have been in favour of the Gothic or pointed styles, whilst, in
the south, civic and ecclesiastical architecture alike were of a
manifest Byzantine or Romanesque tendency. No better illustration of
this is possible than to recall the fact that, when the builders of the
fifteenth century undertook to complete that astoundingly impressive
choir at Beauvais, they sought to rival in size and magnificence its
namesake at Rome, which, under the care of the Pontiff himself, was then
being projected. Thus it was that this thoroughly Gothic structure of
the north was to stand forth as the indicator of local influences, as
contrasted with the Italian design and plans of the St. Peter's of the
south.

A discussion of the merits of any territorial claims as to the inception
of what is commonly known as Gothic architecture, under which name, for
the want of a more familiar term, it shall be referred to herein, is
quite apart from the purport of this volume, and, as such, it were best
ignored. The statement, however, may be made that it would seem clearly
to be the development of a northern influence which first took shape
after a definite