Romanesque arches of the nave, and naturally of a much later date.
Certainly this must be, so far as the respective proportions of each are
concerned, an entirely unique feature. Notable evidences are to be seen
of frescoes, probably the work of some Italian hand, both on the screen
and in the domed apse. They have apparently been whitewashed over many
times, but remorse, if tardily, has evidently come lately, and such
restoration or renovation as has been possible, has been undertaken.

A dainty and diminutive spiral stairway, suggestive of having been
modelled on the lines of the grand spirals at Chambord or Blois, and
half enclosed in the surrounding wall, leads to the Chapter Room above.
The eastern apse, and the crypt beneath, are the earliest parts readily
to be observed and are probably the remains of the Romanesque structure
built by Hugh II. early in the eleventh century, after the common type
of the Auvergnat and Angevine churches.

Perhaps the best workmanship to be noted is that of the
thirteenth-century chapels surrounding the choir. Reclus, a French
authority, has declared that the ornamental foliage here is not only
really admirable as to itself, but is the "perfection of imitation," and
extends this commendation also to the work on the pillars and capitals
of the north doorway by which the church is usually entered.

The interior generally is brilliant and pleasing, though good glass is
mostly wanting, and the uninterrupted flood of light detracts measurably
from the warmth and geniality suggested by the memory of Bourges,
Chartres, or Auxerre. The rose window over the western apse is pitifully
weak and quite lacking in effectiveness.

A canopied _baldacchino_ rises above the altar and, being of stone
treated in a graceful Gothic manner, is an ornament much more in good
taste than the hideous mahogany or oaken serpentine atrocities which are
often erected.

It is impossible to come into close contact with the exterior of this
cathedral except by approaching it from the eastern end. West front
there is none. As one has said, "It possesses merely a western end." The
western tower, of two non-contemporary orders of Gothic (fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries), whether viewed from near or far, is far more
pleasing than any other general exterior feature. The chevet of the
choir extends, as it were, well into the nave, there being no transepts.
This is evidently a local custom, recalling the neighbouring