Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/610

 578 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Pakt II. bell-towers, partly as symbols of power, and sometimes perhaps as fortifications, to which may be added the general purpose of orna- menting the edifices to which they were attached, and giving to them that dignity which elevation always conveys. From the tower the sjiire arose first as a Avooden roof, and as height was one of the great objects to be at- tained in building the tower, it was natural to eke this out by giving the roof an exao;2;erated elevation beyond what was actu- ally rciquired as a mere protection from the weather. When once the idea was conceived of rendering it an or- namental feature, the arcliitects were not long in carrying it oiit. The first and most ob- vious step was that of cutting off the angles, making it an octagon, and carrying up the angles of the tower by l^innacles, with a view to softening the transi- tion between the per- pendicular and sloping part, and reducing it again to harmony. One of the earliest, examples in which this transition is success- fully accomplished is in the old spire at Chartres (Woodcut No. 393) ; the change from the square to the octagon, and from the tower to the pyramid, being managed with great felicity. The western spires of St. Stephen's abbey at Caen (Woodcut No. 379), though added in the age of pointed Gothic to towers of an earlier age, are also pleasing specimens.^ But perhaps one of the very best in France, for its size and age, is that 432. Lantern, St. Ouen, Rouen. (From a print by Chapuy.)