THE NAVE.--The general effect of the nave is that of length rather
than height, and this is mainly due to the continuous arcade of the
triforium which leads the eye from end to end of the building instead
of from floor to roof. If this be compared with the older work in the
transepts, it will be seen at once by how simple a device this radical
change in the effect has been produced. Instead of being carried down
right across the triforium, as in the transepts, the triple vaulting
shafts are cut off above the arcade so as to be little more than
corbels, and the space thus gained is used to give one additional
opening to each bay of the triforium. In the transepts the triforium
is composed of pairs of lancet arches separated by vaulting shafts,
the triforium of each bay being a distinct composition over its pier
arch; but by the time the architect had come to the nave, a new idea
had occurred to him, and he made the triforium in one continuous
arcade, unbroken from east to west, evidently with the deliberate
intention of producing a horizontal rather than a vertical effect. The
arrangement has undoubtedly a character of its own, and "there is no
nave in which the eye is so irresistibly carried eastward as in that
of Wells."

In spite of this method of securing an effect of length, the builders
managed to make the most of the small height of their church. The
manner in which this was done forms an interesting example of the
subtle feeling of proportion which early architects possessed. The
clerestory was made unusually lofty, and the comparative lowness of
the triforium both adds to the soaring effect and prevents the
horizontal appearance being overmastering. This is increased by the
bold vaulting of the ceiling, and the way in which the lantern arches
fit into the vault.

But, homogeneous as the nave appears, a little examination will
clearly reveal the break which marks the separation between the late
twelfth-century work of Reginald de Bohun and the thirteenth-century
continuation of Jocelin. The earlier work, as we have seen, consisted
of the four eastern bays, which, with the present ritual choir and
transepts, formed Reginald's church; and, as a matter of fact, at the
fifth bay (the next bay westward of the north porch) the marks of
change are so evident that all writers upon the cathedral have based
their theories upon it. The earlier masonry in the spandrels on the
east of this point consists of small stones