wooden figures of the sixteenth century,--all of which go to compose a
heterogeneous mass more interesting as to occasional detail than as a
thorough expression of saintly temperament.

The decorative scheme is carried still further by the large number of
paintings with which the church is hung; a tribute none too common in
France, and more usually associated with the Flemish churches of nearly
every rank. A reflection of their preeminence in this respect is
naturally enough visible in French Flanders.

"The Descent from the Cross," attributed to Rubens, appears likely
enough to be a genuine master, but it has been so roughly restored by
overpainting, that it is to-day of impaired value.

St. Omer, among all the group of northeast France, presents a true
Gothic example in its great Basilique de Notre Dame, and it is a pity
that its further development was along lines which indicate a trend, at
least, toward debasement. This is plainly to be noted in the tracery of
the lower and clerestory windows of nave and aisles.

Its enormous tower covers nearly the entire western end of nave and
aisles, in much the same way as those of some of the fortified churches
of the south. Its Gothic is of the true perpendicular style, however,
and, with the general grand proportions of the building, gives that
immensity and massiveness which is associated only with a church of the
first rank. The _arcs-boutant_ of the nave are hardly deserving of
mention as such, though they are manifestly sturdy props which perform
their functions in perhaps as efficacious a manner as many more graceful
and delicate specimens elsewhere. There is just a suggestion of a
central tower, which, as is often the case in France, has dwindled to a
mere cupola, if it had ever previously grown to a greater height. The
transepts are of imposing dimensions, that on the south having an
enormous rose of perhaps thirty-five feet in diameter, with an
elaborately carved portal below, which contains a "Last Judgment" in the
tympanum. The choir, chevet, and chapels, while existent to a visible
and very beautiful degree, are somewhat overshadowed by the great size
of the transepts. There is this to be said, however: that the choir, a
restoration of our own day, presents, as to style, the type of Gothic
purity at its height. It has five radiating chapels, not including that
of Notre Dame des Miracles, which adjoins the south transept and
contains innumerable votive tablets