Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/631

 ENGLISH RENAISSANCE. 573 Paris, page 500), and is 109 feet at the base of the drum, diminishing to 102 feet at the top. The inner dome of brick- work, 18 inches thick, has its summit 281 feet high, and the intermediate conical dome also of brickwork 18 inches thick, supports the stone lantern, ball and cross, which latter has a height of 365, feet. The outer dome is formed of timber covered with lead, and rests on the intermediate dome (No. 253 b). Eight openmgs are formed in the summit for the admission of light to the inner domes. The exterior is exceedingly effective, and is made to group well with the central dome. The facades have two orders totalling 108 feet in height, the lower Corinthian and the upper Composite, but as the aisles are only one story high, the upper story on the flanks is a screen wall introduced to give dignity, and to act as a counterweight to the flying buttresses concealed behind it, which receive the thrust of the nave vault. The western front, 180 feet wide, and approached by a broad flight of steps, is flanked by two finely proportioned towers, 215 feet high, having between them the double storied portico of coupled columns supporting a pediment in which there is a fine repre- sentation of the conversion of S. Paul. The dome externally is probably the finest example in Europe, the projecting masses of masonry at the meeting of nave and transepts expressing the support of the dome from the ground upwards. The colonnade to the drum is particularly effective, being formed of three-quarter columns attached to radiating buttress walls, having every fourth intercolumniation filled in solid, and thus giving an appearance of strength and solidity which is lacking in the Pantheon, Paris. Behind the balustrade, known as the " Stone Gallery," rises an attic above supporting the dome, which is crowned with lantern and cross. The poetess Joanna Baillie has well described the majestic appearance of S. Paul on a foggy day : — " Rear'd in the sky, 'Tis then St. Paul's arrests the wandering eye ; The lower parts in swathing mists conceal'd The higher through some half-spent shower reveal'd. So far from earth remov'd, that well I trow, Did not its form man's artful structure show, It might some lofty Alpine peak be deem'd, The eagle's haunt, with cave and crevice seam'd. Stretch'd wide on either hand, a rugged screen. In lurid dimness nearer streets are seen. Like shoreward billows of a troubled sea Arrested in their rage." S. Paul, London S. Peter, Rome. Time Building. A rchitects. Master Mason Bishops 35 years. One. One. One. 100 years. Six. — Twenty