and often inconsequent experiments in the treatment and
proportion of every storey, particularly of the triforium, and in
compromise between vertical and horizontal tendencies. Thus at Beverley,
Salisbury, and particularly in the nave of Wells, the horizontal
tendency is predominant, and the triforium is both important and
continuous, without regard for the vertical division of the bays. In the
Early English transept of the minster itself the triforium is the most
prominent feature of the design. These are all examples of Early English
work, but in the nave of Lichfield, which is Decorated, the triforium is
still far more prominent than the clerestory. In the same way a various
and experimental use may be noticed of the shafts dropping from the
point at which the ribs converge. At Wells and Salisbury these shafts
reach only to the top of the triforium. They are so insignificant as
hardly even to suggest a vertical division. At Beverley they cease a
little way above the capitals of the main piers, and are still very
slender. At Exeter they are much more prominent, and terminate in rich
corbels reaching to the capitals of the main piers; while in the later
naves of Canterbury and Winchester, not only do they reach to the
ground, but they are forced so far forward, and rendered so prominent by
continuous mouldings on each side of them, that they become the most
significant part of the whole structure. They seem to be the columns on
which the vault is supported; and we have at last the avenue of stone.

[Illustration: The Nave.]

The nave of York Minster was built at an intermediate stage, in which
neither the vertical nor the horizontal tendency predominated. We might
have expected, therefore, a design something like that in the naves of
Exeter or Worcester; but the York builders were ambitious. They were
determined to build a nave both lofty and wide, and with a great space
for the display of stained glass. It seems likely, though we have no
evidence to support the theory, that they were influenced by French
example. There can be no doubt, as Professor Freeman has pointed out,
that the design is more French than that of any other large English
church, hitherto built, except Westminster Abbey. The most casual
observer will be struck at once by the large space occupied by the
glass. The clerestory is unusually large; the main arches unusually
high, and thus far the greater part of each bay is filled with the
clerestory an