Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/757

 1869.] The llinsters of England. 615 inches; height, 101 feet 8 inches; breadth of each aisle, 1 6 feet 7 inches ; extreme breadth across the nave and aisles, 71 feet 9 inches ; length of choir, 155 feet 9 inches ; extreme breadth of ditto, 38 feet 4 inches ; height, 101 feet 2 inches ; breadth of the middle part of transept, 39 feet ; ditto of the aisles, 22 feet 10 inches; height of transept, 105 feet 5 inches ; extreme length, from west door to the piers of Henry VII's Chapel, 383. feet ; ditto, including Hen- ry's Chapel, 511 feet 6 inches. The South Transept is what has obtained the honorable and unique title of the " Poet's Corner." The North Front was, in ancient times, the principal entrance to the church ; and all the stately processions, and pompous trains assembled to grace the coronations, the thanksgivings, and the burials of the sovereigns of England, were ushered beneath its porch to give interest and effect to the solemnities within. This front consists of such a consider- able variety of parts, that it becomes difficult to describe it, with any thing- approaching accuracy, in the limits necessarily assigned to the subject, in the pages of our Review. Four immense buttresses, which, from their workmanship and disposition, are rendered very ornamental, sustain the walls ; their several graduatory stages being sculptured into cinque-foil-headed niches, &c, and each buttress being ter- minated by an octagonal pinnacle, of which every face is wrought with a tre- foil-headed paneling, between small columns ; a similar, but lesser pinnacle, rises over the apex of the roof; and is crowned with a small vane, as all the pinnacles were formerly. The corner buttresses form irregular octagons, in- cluding staircases, which are carried up to the roof, through the great arch-but- tresses that extend across the side- aisles. This facade may be described, as consisting, vertically, of four com- partments, the lowermost of which in- cludes the three entrance-porches. The central porch opens by a very high- pointed arch, forming a deep recess, its archivolt being supported on each side by five slender columns, having capitals of rich foliage. The flat wall, at the back of the arch — over the two door- ways, which are separated by a plain, upright pier — is nearly filled by a circle of paneling, including twelve other circles, variously adorned ; in the cen- tral one are the arms of St. Edward the Confessor, or, in simple laic, King Ed- ward, that Saxon monarch, who willed his kingdom to William of Normandy, in right of which legacy, the lawful King Harold was overcome and killed in battle, whilst the Norman took pos- session, under the acknowledged title of William the Conqueror. Three clus- tered columns on each side similarly ornamented, but larger than those before mentioned, sustain all the outer mould- ings of this porch, except the extreme moulding, or water-table, which con- tinues round both the smaller porches, as well as over the arcade of trefoil arches between them and at the sides. A large finial, of congregated foliage, crowns the apex of this front. All the outward mouldings of these porches contract inwardly at the springing of the great arches, from the circles having been struck at some distance above the imposts. A trefoil-headed paneling ex- tends along the whole upper part of this division, which is terminated by a range of pierced cinque-foil arches and a plain parapet. The next compartment con- sists of four wide and obtusely-pointed arches, above which is an arcade of eleven pointed arches, surmounted by a perforated battlement : the obtuse arches form deep recesses, extending to the windows. The arcade arches arc well proportioned, the mouldings spring from light, clustered shafts, and" each arch is divided into two others, having trefoil heads, by a small column: within the space above is a circle enclosing a cinque-foil. The third compartment in-