Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/224

 164 OX THE ARCHITECTURE OF a third of its height ; its proportions would thus be rendered intolerable, the width becoming excessive ; the present arrangement would have to be deserted. Externally also the window would no longer be the whole that it now is ; if the roof were high, there would be a gable window, turning it into a composition in stages, and destroying the whole unity of effect ; if it were low, besides the general loss in appearance, a spandril would remain a great deal too large for the animating idea of the design. Again, the large projecting ba}'- forming the presbytery, with the ffreat windows on each side, is in itself a striking object, and greatl}^ helps to set off the east window. Were it not thus recessed from the choir, but placed level with the eastern responds, half its grandeur would be gone. On the other hand it is no less clear that a very much deejDer recess would tend to spoil the effect equally the other way. Now a little consideration will show that no other arrangement could so well have admitted of a recess of this particular size. If the choir had been designed on the usual plan with a clerestor}', and such a recess been introduced, this bay must have had on each side either a blank space or a small window beneath the clerestory range, the bad effect of which may be estimated from the similarly recessed eastern bay in the Cathedral ; or, if large windows like the present had been introduced, the change of design in a single bay, not forming a distinct addition, like a Lad}'- Chapel, would have been far from pleasing. But with the present quasi-parochial arrangement, the recessed bay is introduced without any difficulty, and indeed actually improves the outline. It gives, as I have just said, great additional internal majesty, and externally I think it is clear that the peculiar character of the east window would not have been so well carried out, had the adchtion of aisles made it merely a part of a front. In like manner, the peculiar arrangement of the south choir South Aisle of aisle, another of the striking characteristics of Choir, ^j-^g church, would have been altogether inadmissible in a building of the ordinar}^ type. This portion of the fabric is even now extremely effective, though it has lost very much, both within and without, by its high gable having been destroyed, and its contemplated vaulting never having been