Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/580

 548 FRENCH ^ARCHITECTURE. Pabt H 400. View of Cathedral at Coutances. (From Transactions of Institute of British Architects.) stands most nobly on the flat top of a high isolated hill — have a highly picturesque and pleasing effect, and notwithstanding the rudeness of some of its details, h and its deflciency in sculpture, it is in many respects one of the most interesting of the catliedrals j'' of France. 0]ie of the earliest of the com- J ])lete pointed Gothic churches of France is that of Coutances (Wood- cut No. 400), the whole of which Ijelongs to the first half of the 13th century, and though poor in sculp- ture, makes up for this to some extent by the elegance of its archi- tectural details, which are unri- 401. Lady Chapel, Auxerre. i,Froni chapuy.) vailed or nearly SO in France.