. For the rest, except for the fact
that the interior partakes of a mere collection of curios and relics, it
is in general no less imposing in its proportions than the exterior. The
clerestory windows, however, are of ill proportions for so grand a
structure, being short and squat; and here, as elsewhere throughout the
building, is to be found only modern glass.

The great bell of the western tower weighs 8,500 kilos.

Chief among the notable accessories and reliques is the monolithic tomb
of St. Erkembode, bishop of the one-time see of Therouanne, period
725-37. The sarcophagus itself, dating from the same century, was
brought here from the original site. The tomb of St. Omer was restored
in the thirteenth century and shows a remarkable sculptured group of
Christ, the Virgin, and St. John, called the "Great God of Therouanne."
It was saved from the ruin of the church at Therouanne, which was
destroyed with the greater part of the town in 1533 by Charles V., in
revenge for the "loss of three bishoprics," as history states. At this
time the sees of St. Omer and Boulogne were founded.

The near-by Palace of Justice, built by Mansart in 1680 and enlarged for
its present use in 1840, was the former Episcopal Palace.

St. Omer has also two other grand churches, St. Sepulchre, of the
fourteenth century, and the ruins of St. Bertin (1326-1520), which,
before the Revolution, with St. Ouen at Rouen, and the collegiate church
at San Quentin, was reckoned as one of the most beautiful Gothic abbeys
in France. To-day it is a magnificent ruin, its huge tower (built in
1431) and portions of the nave and crossing being all that remain. It
was considered the finest church in the Low Countries, and for size,
purity, and uniformity of style it ranked with the best of its
contemporaries.

V

ST. VAAST D'ARRAS

The capital of ancient Flanders was removed from Arras to Ghent when
Artois was ceded to France, and thus it was that the city became French,
as it were, but slowly, its Low Country traditions and customs clinging
closely to it until a late day. The former Cathedral of Notre Dame
ranked as a grand example of the ogival style of the fourteenth century,
in which it was built, and gave to the city of the "tapestry makers" the
distinction of possessing a church composed of much that was best of the
architecture of a fast growing art. Such was the mediaeval rank to which
the cathedral at Arras had attained. The new Cathedr