d the aisle windows. With so much space given to the
highest and lowest storeys, it naturally follows that the triforium is
almost squeezed out of existence. Indeed, out of a total height of 99
feet, there are only about 13 between the top of the main arches and the
bottom of the clerestory. It would have been almost impossible to give
so narrow a triforium a separate and independent design; and, therefore,
by a device often found in French cathedrals, the triforium is merely a
continuation of the mullions of the clerestory windows. Behind these
mullions is the customary triforium passage; but the design really
consists only of two parts, the clerestory and the main arches. It is as
if the lower part of the light of the clerestory windows were divided
from the rest by a transom, and pierced, but not glazed, so as to let in
light to the passage behind them. This is the first example of this
treatment, which was so happily followed in the naves of Winchester and
Canterbury, in an English cathedral. In earlier examples, even where the
triforium was decisively divided into bays and had ceased to be a
continuous arcading, it was absolutely independent of the clerestory, as
in the transepts of the minster. There can be no doubt that the plan
adopted in the nave was a convenient and logical one. It is impossible
to have every advantage; and where the designer has set his heart on a
wall of glass, he cannot combine it with a rich and prominent triforium.
Unfortunately, the architect of the nave, though ambitious and logical
up to a certain point, did not carry his pursuit of the vertical
tendency far enough. He aimed at unity and coherence in the design of
each bay, and for the sake of that unity and coherence he was forced to
sacrifice the richness and fulness of pattern given by a prominent and
independent triforium. The later builders at Winchester and Canterbury
made up for this, as has been said, by the emphasis they gave to their
vertical lines. But at York, while the insignificance of the triforium
deprives the design of all horizontal continuity, there is little
attempt at vertical emphasis. True, large shafts rise from the floor to
the converging point of the ribs of the vault; but these shafts are not
forced forwards as at Winchester, but lie flat against the wall. They
are prominent enough when each individual bay is examined, but they do
not catch the eye when the nave is looked at as a whole. In the naves of
Salisbur