Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/184

Rh have been so remodelled that their original forms cannot be precisely determined; but if the summits of their walls corresponded with the lines of the aisle roofs, as appears probable, there is enough beside to show that it must have been one of the most beautiful façades in England.

The east end of Lincoln (Fig. 90) retains its side compartments in their original form. Their lower portions contain each one wide mullioned and traceried window, above which is a blind arcade of five arches, and over this again is a gable having no connection with the aisle roofs, but rising above them as an entirely useless and merely decorative feature. The central compartment has two great pointed openings, one above the other. The lower one of these is the great window to which I have already referred, and the second is a lesser, though still a very large window, lighting the space over the vaults.

In addition to the east ends of Ely and Lincoln, that of Salisbury, which also retains its original form, may be mentioned as affording another illustration of that want of unity and logic of design and construction which so largely characterises this architecture. In this case the walls of the three compartments, into which the façade is divided by buttresses, are carried up to an equal height, where they are surmounted by a cornice supported by a corbel table; and above this are three gables, one over the central compartment, and smaller ones over the lateral compartments. These last are, of course, merely false decorative features, the aisle roofs being far below them.

Transept ends, where there are transept aisles, are enclosed in substantially the same way as are the east ends. Where there are no transept aisles, as in the east transept of Lincoln, there are, of course, no vertical divisions in the façade. Where there is but one transept aisle, as in the west transept of the same building, there is but one such division. The transept façade has sometimes a wheel window at the clerestory level, as at Lincoln, and sometimes it has such a window in the gable, as at York and Beverley. A very beautiful early one filled with plate tracery, is that of the north arm of the west transept of Lincoln; and there is a fine one, of bar tracery, in the south transept of York; but the wheel window was never in England developed to