HAPTER III

THE EXTERIOR

York Minster consists of a nave of eight bays and a choir of nine. It
has a large central tower and two western towers. The main transepts
project three bays from the nave and choir. There are also two eastern
transepts four bays west of the east end, which do not project beyond
the aisles of the choir. The chapter-house lies to the east of the
northern transept, and is connected with it by a lofty passage
projecting three bays from the transept. The east end of the cathedral
is square, as in most English Gothic churches. The best views are to be
obtained from the north, especially from the walls, which will be most
conveniently ascended at Bootham Bar, or from the extreme northern
corner of the close. From the walls the whole of the vast bulk of the
minster may be seen, broken by the great central tower and the lofty cap
of the chapter-house. Other English cathedrals are more finely placed,
several are richer in ornament, one or two have a more delicately varied
outline. None are so stately and so magnificent; and there is hardly a
church in Europe that appears so vast as the minster viewed from the
north. Compared with it the great French cathedrals, with their stilted
roofs so often unbroken, except by a small fleche and with their
outlines concealed in a crowd of flying buttresses, are apt to look
short and huddled when seen from a distance.

The low-pitched roof of the minster, the absence of flying buttresses,
and the simple and tranquil front of the north transept, give the
building an air of masculine and stately repose, and of perfect finish
seldom to be found in foreign churches; while the apparent uniformity of
style, though the architecture is of three different periods, frees it
from the picturesque inconsequence of many English cathedrals. Yet
neither inside nor outside does the minster appear to be the expression
of the spiritual aspirations of a people. It represents rather the
secular magnificence, the temporal power of a Church, that has played a
great part in the history of the nation. The archbishops of York have
been forced by circumstances to be militant prelates, contending with
Canterbury for precedence, leading armies against the Scotch, sometimes
even heading rebellions against the king; and in their cathedral they
have expressed their ambition and their pride.

#The West Front.#--The west front of York Minster is free from the two
faults most common to the facad