ue
sordidness, made the more so by the smoke arising from many belching
factory chimneys. In fact, one has difficulty in thinking of it as a
cathedral town at all; and, as such, it hardly claims more than a brief
resume of its important features. A much more interesting, impressive,
and commanding church is that of St. Jacques, which at least has the
stamp of a personality, which in the cathedral itself is entirely
wanting, so far as one's latent sympathies are concerned. In spite of
the purity of that which is Gothic in its fabric, it has little of that
quality which arouses admiration, and which, regardless of the edict of
a certain seer and prophet, is mostly that for which we revere a great
monument,--its power to sway us impressively.

Mr. Ruskin has taken great pains to commend the southern portal as being
"one of the most quaint and pleasing doors in all Normandy,"--a
non-committal enough statement, most will admit, and one with which we
are not obliged to agree. A broader-minded observer would have said that
the main body of the church presents a unity of design, very unusual in
a mediaeval work,--excelled by no other example in France. The greater
part of the nave, choir, and transepts is the work of one epoch only;
and, as some writers have it, of one man, Bishop Odericus Vitalis, who
died shortly after its completion, in the latter part of the eleventh
century. As a style, it may be said to be either the last of the
transition or of the very earliest Gothic. Certainly this is something
in its favour; but the general charm of its immediate surroundings is
lacking, and the effect of its interior, with the diminutive windows of
the nave and clerestory, does not tend to satisfy, or even gratify, one
with the sense of pleasure which perhaps its more creditable features
deserve. These are not wholly wanting; for, of course, one must not
forget that doorway of Ruskin's nor the quite idyllic proportions of the
nave with its uniform massive pillars.

The lady-chapel was founded in the fifteenth century by the rascally
Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who, with his brother, prelate of
Winchester, so gleefully burned Joan of Arc. This much he did in
expiation of "_his false judgment_," though, except as a memorial of his
significant remorse, the chapel itself would hardly be remarkable. The
clerestory of nave and choir is considerably later. The transepts vary
as to their windows, and the triforium arches are here at a dif