it must not be supposed that this nave
is altogether to be condemned, as some critics have condemned it. Each
bay, looked at by itself, is not only perfectly logical and coherent in
design, but is filled with delicate and appropriate detail. The
capitals, if small, are finely carved; the mouldings well contrasted and
subordinated; and the window tracery is the finest possible. It is a
work of the best age of architecture with all the characteristics in
detail of that age; yet it is not the work of a builder of genius, but
of a careful scholar, who has imperfectly assimilated the principles of
his masters.

In passing this judgment, it must be remembered that we are not rashly
coming to a conclusion on insufficient data. This nave is not a mere
beautiful scaffolding deprived of all its original decoration, like the
nave of Salisbury. If that is somewhat cold and wanting in richness, it
is the fault of later ages, which have deprived it of its stained glass.
At York the greater part of the stained glass remains. The vault has
been renewed, it is true, but it can never have been satisfactory; and
we may assume that in essentials we see the nave now as its designers
intended us to see it.

To pass to a detailed description, the nave is divided into eight bays,
of which the two nearest the lantern are narrower than the rest, no
doubt with the purpose of giving increased support to the tower. It is
about 263 feet long inside, and 48 feet wide, with the aisle 104 feet
wide in all. Its height is about 991/2 feet. Each bay is divided into
two main divisions of almost equal height; the upper half, consisting of
the triforium and clerestory, being only about 2 feet longer than the
lower, which consists of the main arches. These two halves are divided
by a slender horizontal moulding running immediately above the crown of
the main arches.

The piers of the main arches are octagonal in shape and unusually
slender. They are made up of shafts of different sizes, the larger ones
placed at the corners of the octagon, the smaller ones between them. The
grouping of these shafts should be compared with that of the Early
English piers in the transepts. There the central mass of masonry is
surrounded with shafts of Purbeck marble almost detached. Here the
different shafts are closely connected together and subordinated. The
earlier pier is made up, so to speak, of a bundle of shafts; the later
is a mass of masonry cut into different shap