Page:Suggestions on the Arrangement and Characteristics of Parish Churches.djvu/17

Rh a hundred feet. The designs, however, of Churches for larger congregations are very numerous, and extremely simple, and have the advantage of preserving the two essential and original features. If the requirements of the congregation do not very much exceed a simple nave, the addition of a lateral aisle may be sufficient; if that be not sufficient, another aisle on the opposite side may meet the demand.

If, again, a nave and two aisles be not adequate to the wants of a congregation, transepts may be added, which, if they be well proportioned in themselves, and bear a due proportion to the nave, and aisles, and chancel, produce the most beautiful and most significant plan of a Church—the cruciform.

In large Churches of this kind, of course, one altar will not be sufficient; and, as it is not strictly correct to have more than one (and that the great altar of the Church) within the chancel, suitable provision must be made for the supplementary altars in other parts of the Church. It is obvious that, in a Church with aisles, their eastern terminations will be the most convenient and appropriate situations for altars; they should, if possible, be placed in chapels projecting laterally with the chancel; and the separation between these chapels and the aisles should be as well defined as that between the chancel and nave.

If the number of the clergy attached to a Church, the wishes of the laity, or special devotions, require additional altars, the east side of the transepts is a convenient position for them. If the transepts be of moderate dimensions, there might be two altars in each; thus a parochial