simplicity and chastity of design strikingly characteristic of the architectural taste in the reign of Edward III. There are no towers upon this front, but in other respects the general design of the porch and of the large western window much resembles that of Canterbury Cathedral, erected at a later period." Large hexagonal turrets, which terminate in small crocketed spires, are carried up at the angles of the nave, and between the buttresses of these turrets, the principal porch or entrance of the nave is deeply recessed, and is surmounted by a gallery, with an open-worked parapet; the original use of this gallery was for the convenience of the bishop, who, attended by his clergy, here gave his solemn benediction, on particular occasions, to the people assembled in front of the church. Immediately over the gallery is the great western window, of equal width with the nave, and rising almost to the vaulting. The great breadth of the window is distributed into three chief divisions, which are again divided into three subordinate divisions, and crossed by four transom mullions, a manner of arranging the different lights adopted in several of the principal windows constructed in the succeeding century, and after the more flattened arch became fashionable, as at Saint George's Chapel, Windsor, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, &c." The wall of the highly pitched gable of the roof is paneled in numerous compartments, and is surmounted by an enriched tabernacled niche, containing a perfect statue of William of Wykeham, who is supposed to have completed the work on this front, which was begun by Bishop Edington. The two porches opening upon the aisles of the nave are recessed and constructed in corresponding taste between large buttresses which support the outer angles of the western front; these buttresses are carried above the parapet of the walls, and are surmounted by ornamental finials.

10 See page 22 ante.

11 The composition is considered to be good and the mouldings well relieved in the specimens enumerated, but this style is denounced, by a very competent judge of pointed architecture, as betraying a closeness and heaviness of design, amounting to degeneracy when compared with the florid style of the windows constructed in the preceding age. This deterioration of beauty, Mr. Wilson says, was partly occasioned by the lights between the upright mullions being divided into so many heights or panels, a mode which originated in the works of the celebrated William of Wykeham, in the nave of his Cathedral at Winchester. The obtuse arch was also too often allowed to cut off the varied tracery, which so much adorned the windows of earlier date.-Pagin's Specimens of Gothic Architecture.