restorative processes commonly disfigured no more than this, it is a
pity that the dust and cobwebs, and a little of the grime of ages, were
not more often removed. Here is the very excess of dog-tooth, arabesque,
and grotesque carving, never found in connection with a building which
is constructively decorative. Here also is an ornate frieze of no great
depth and possessing none of the beauties of the two other distinct
elements. As there is no triforium in the nave proper, this decoration
is, of course, intended merely as a relief to a bareness which, on
account of the generous height, would otherwise exist.

In the choir, the triforium, which is omitted in the nave, springs into
being in beautiful and ornate form. The lower arches, with the supports,
the attributed work of an English architect, are of the usual Gothic
form, in contra-distinction to the rounded heads of those of the nave.
The clerestory, though delicate and graceful, is somewhat curtailed from
the dimensions of that of the west end of the church.

The transepts are unusually bright and cheerful, with a series of
windows more beautifully designed than those of either the choir or
nave. The choir stalls are of oak, carved in the best manner of the
Renaissance.

The charming tower group of this cathedral is as effective, perhaps, as
any among all the northern churches. The central belfry, albeit of a
base, though pretentious, rococo design, follows no accepted style, but
adds imposingly to the general outline. (Its height is over three
hundred feet.) In this tower, as in the window tracery, the
_fleur-de-lys_, always a sign of the decadent in Gothic style, is to be
seen. The western towers, with their spires, follow the truest pyramidal
form, and, though carrying both pointed and round-arched openings, are
in every way representative of the best work of their period. The
northwesterly tower has an elongated turret, extending from the lower
ranges, which, when seen from a distance over the roof of the nave,
appears as a protuberance not unlike a dove-cote. This contains the
spiral staircase up which visitors are earnestly implored, by the
caretaker, to wend their way and participate in the view from the
heights above. This view, though undeniably wider in range than are most
elevated view-points, is hardly of interest to one who seeks the
beauties of the structure itself. There are three porches on the west
facade, all fairly well filled with foliaged