Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/585

 Bk. II. Ch. IX. FEENCII C40THIC CATHEDRALS. 553 important features, and the intrusion of much modern vulgarity, may be called a romance in stone, consisting as it does of a profusion of the most playful fancies. Like most of the cathedrals near our shores, that of Rouen was designed to have a centi'al spire ; this, however, was not completed till late in the cinque-cento age, and then only in vulgar woodwork meant to imitate stone. That being destroyed, an attempt has lately been made to replace it by still more vulgar iron- work, leaner and poorer than almost anything else of modern times. In the preceding pages, all mention of the cathedrals of Bazas and Bourges has been purposely omitted, because they belong to a different type from the above. The first (Woodcut No. 405) is one of the most 4U7. M.-n <.it Cutiiedrai ;U liourges. (From drawings by F. Penrose, Esq., architect.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. perfect specimens of the pure Gothic style in the South of France. Its noble triple portal, filled with exquisite sculpture, and its exten- sive chevet, make it one of the most beautiful of its class. It shows no trace of a transept, — a peculiarity, as before pointed out, by no means uncommon in the South. This, though a defect in so far as external effect is concerned, gives great value to the internal dimen- sions, the appearance of length being far greater than when the view is broken by the intersection of the transept. This is still more striking at Bourges, where the cathedral, though one of the finest and largest in France, covering 73,170 square feet, is still one of the shortest, being only 405 ft. in extreme length; yet owing to the central aisle being wholly unbroken, it apj)ears one of