commanding situation, it is one not to be ignored when the
really fine gems of mediaeval treasures are catalogued. It is another of
those types, so far as its choir is concerned, which rise to a loftiness
of soaring height, which, in later days, degenerated, or were lost
altogether in the fabric of the transepts and nave. The height of the
choir is perhaps not so great as it really appears, when gauged by its
sheer rise from the river level; but such is the suggestion, at least,
which, after all, is what the eye and certain other of our senses
admire, quite as much as a professed expert classification.

The western front is of unusual appearance in that the southern tower
glances off into the angle of the gable in most curious fashion; not
beautiful, nor as originally intended to remain, but so it is, and
offers at least a comparison of how a lofty gable looks when it lacks
towers of an appropriate height. At the right of this low tower of the
facade, hidden behind a wall, is a thoroughly Pagan doorway, which might
well pass unobserved, did one not actually stumble upon it unawares. It
is a curious reminder of other days and other ways, and how it became an
adjunct of this mediaeval church the local records fail to state. The
three main portals of the facade, as that of the transept, are somewhat
bare of ornament, though the main tympanum and the spring of the arch
are fairly filled. These portals are of the late thirteenth century, and
exhibit no traces of the debasement which subsequently entered into the
upper ranges of the tower and lateral portals.

Both the transepts and the west front contain rose windows of good,
though not remarkable design, and each is exceedingly generous in size.
The interior, generally, does not give the effect of the great height
suggested from the rear view of the choir overhanging the river front;
but both nave and choir are of unusual width, and so also is the
clerestory, which is lofty, and set with rare old glass of the most
splendid and valuable quality, in the main the gift of Bishop de
Villeneuve in 1220.

The choir terminates with the usual apse, which is further elongated by
the far-reaching lady-chapel, which adjoins the main fabric in a
graceful and unusual manner. The north tower was completed as late as
the sixteenth century, and that of the south was left unfinished,--as it
is to-day. The gable and its portals are highly decorated with statues,
niches, and crockets.

Aro