at other
equally abominable example in Paris, St. Eustache.

The _portail_ of this remarkable church, locally so called, though in
reality it is only a detached gateway, far from the church building
itself, is a wonderful Italian suggestion, now mellowed and weathered
and undeniably charming in colour in spite of its being so manifestly
out of its environment.

[Illustration: _St. Etienne de Bourges_]

II

ST. ETIENNE DE BOURGES

The Cathedral of St. Etienne de Bourges partakes of the same honours
which are accorded to the premier quartette of the Isle of France.
Nearly contemporary with Paris and Laon, this cathedral steps into its
rank with a grandeur and firmness that in a less stolid or more ornate
edifice is often wanting. It retains certain of its Romanesque features,
perhaps unduly pronounced; likewise it has certain attributes of
Burgundian luxuriance; but withal it presents the highly developed
Gothic tendency to a far greater degree than either. Although not far to
the south of Paris, Bourges is thoroughly of another climatic
environment, which not only shows itself in the changed conditions of
life, but in the manner of building as well.

The great transeptless church of St. Etienne is another of those soaring
monuments which rise skyward and hold the eye whenever one is in its
vicinity. Standing on an eminence of not very great height, it
dominates, from every point of view, the plain which surrounds the city
and reminds one of Noyon or Laon in its comparative isolation. Not
because its domicile is not a place of some magnitude, but rather
because the neighbouring houses lie so huddled in a valley or plain,
does the city give the impression of being of less size than it really
is.

The view from the railway on entering the town is, as it has been called
by some imaginative Frenchman, "but the _hors d'oeuvre_ of the
architectural feast to follow," and on drawing still closer, it composes
grandly with the swift-flowing little river lined with the tall slim
trees which are so distinguished a feature of a French landscape.

Like Beauvais, Amiens, and, in only a slightly lesser degree, Le Mans,
the sheer fall of the nave and choir from ridge to ground startles one
by its exaggeration of perpendicular lines. Though by no means of the
great height of these other examples, its great size first impresses one
as its distinguishing feature. It sits, too, on the edge of a beautiful
wooded park which,