ment of foliation is scrupulously confined to the
bearing arches of the gable, and of the lateral niches, so that, on any
given side of the monument, only three foliated arches are discernible.
All the rest of the ornamentation is "bossy sculpture," set on the broad
marble surface. On the point of the gable are set the shield and
dog-crest of the Scalas, with its bronze wings, as of a dragon, thrown
out from it on either side; below, an admirably sculptured oak-tree
fills the centre of the field; beneath it is the death of Abel, Abel
lying dead upon his face on one side, Cain opposite, looking up to
heaven in terror: the border of the arch is formed of various leafage,
alternating with the scala shield; and the cusps are each filled by one
flower, and two broad flowing leaves. The whole is exquisitely relieved
by color; the ground being of pale red Verona marble, and the statues
and foliage of white Carrara marble, inlaid.

Sec. CII. The figure below it, _b_, represents the southern lateral
door of the principal church in Abbeville: the smallness of the scale
compelled me to make it somewhat heavier in the lines of its traceries
than it is in reality, but the door itself is one of the most exquisite
pieces of flamboyant Gothic in the world; and it is interesting to see
the shield introduced here, at the point of the gable, in exactly the
same manner as in the upper example, and with precisely the same
purpose,--to stay the eye in its ascent, and to keep it from being
offended by the sharp point of the gable, the reversed angle of the
shield being so energetic as completely to balance the upward tendency
of the great convergent lines. It will be seen, however, as this example
is studied, that its other decorations are altogether different from
those of the Veronese tomb; that, here, the whole effect is dependent on
mere multiplications of similar lines of tracery, sculpture being hardly
introduced except in the seated statue under the central niche, and,
formerly, in groups filling the shadowy hollows under the small niches
in the archivolt, but broken away in the Revolution. And if now we turn
to Plate XII., just passed, and examine the heads of the two lateral
niches there given from each of these monuments on a larger scale, the
contrast will be yet more apparent. The one from Abbeville (fig. 5),
though it contains much floral work of the crisp Northern kind in its
finial and crockets, yet depends for all its effect on