little flying buttresses, intended
apparently to repeat the inclined surface of the other side. The two
north aisles are fortunately not carried westward so far as the nave,
which projects a half bay beyond them and so prevents the otherwise
unrelieved flatness of this part. The most effective of the porches is
that on the west front, just north of the tower. It appears to have
been built after the nave was finished, and may have been added
expressly to provide a more dignified entrance to the church when
Henry VI came in state in 1451, for it faces directly up the nave. The
groining with cusped panels and numerous bosses has escaped
restoration. The five niches above the porch are statueless, and so
are those on the porch front. May they long continue so! The doors are
largely original and are finely panelled and carved.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: At the last restoration the height was reduced to 298
feet.]

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE WEST.]

CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH

From within the door by which the church is usually entered, that near
the south-west angle, we obtain an overpowering impression of the
special characteristic of the interior, its spaciousness, for it is
here more than 100 feet wide and the east window is nearly 240 feet
distant.

The =nave=, which is 37 feet 6 inches wide in the clear, is wider than
that of many cathedrals, and much exceeds that of most parish
churches, the widest (Worstead) given in Brandon's "Parish Churches"
being 29 feet. Boston alone exceeds it by about 3 feet. While the
ordinary aisle width ranges from 10 to 14 feet, the north aisle here
is 23 feet, the outer north and the south being each 17 feet. The
total internal length is 265 feet, exclusive of the sacristy; Boston,
the only larger one, being 284 feet, while very few exceed 200 feet,
and most are far smaller. The greatest internal width is 120 feet;
Manchester, a double-aisled collegiate church, is about the same, and
York Minster is 106 feet. Finally, the area is about 22,800 square
feet, probably greater than that of any other English parish church,
indeed, St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, is the only one which pretends to
rivalry in this respect. Size is, of course, only one element in the
impressiveness of a building, and may even be neutralized by the
treatment (as, for instance, in the Duomo of Florence and St. Peter's,
Rome, by increasing the size of its parts rather than