Salisbury, the "silent finger" of its spire. This is the loftiest in England, rising 404 feet above the pavement (Chichester, said, but very doubtfully, to have been built in imitation of it, is 271 feet in height; Norwich, 309 feet), and its summit is 30 feet above the top of St. Paul's. The central spire of Amiens (422 feet) is 22 feet higher than Salisbury; and that of Strasburg (468 feet), the highest in the world, 68 feet. It may well be doubted, however, whether in general effect and in grace of proportion Salisbury should not occupy the first place. The spire of Amiens is reduced to comparative insignificance by the enormous height of the roof (208 feet) above which it rises (the height of the nave-roof of Salisbury is only 81 feet); that of Strasburg, covered as it is with elaborate ornament, is far less graceful in form; and the traceries which enclose it are "unmeaning and constructively useless."

It is almost certain, judging from the very remarkable abutments running through the triforium and clerestory of the nave, choir, and transepts, that the central tower (without the spire) formed part of the original plan (see post, § XX.). The Early English portion, however, terminates with the first story, about eight feet above the roof; the two additional stories and the spire above them date, as has already been stated, from the reign of Edward III. The walls of the upper stories of the tower are covered with a blind arcade, richly canopied, and pierced for light with double windows on all four sides. Above each story is a parapet with lozengeshaped traceries, which are repeated in the three bands

encircling the spire. At each angle of the tower is an octagonal stair-turret, crowned with a small crocketed spire. The great spire, itself octagonal, rises from between four small, richly decorated pinnacles. Its walls are two feet in thickness from the bottom to a height of twenty feet; from thence to the summit their thickness is only nine inches. The spire is filled with a remarkable frame of timber-work, which served as a scaffold during its erection, and will be afterwards noticed (§ XXII.). Whilst making some repairs in 1762, the workmen found a cavity on the south side of the capstone, in which was a leaden box, enclosing a second of wood which contained a piece of much decayed silk or fine linen, no doubt a relic (possibly of the Virgin, to whom the cathedral is dedicated), placed there in order to avert lightning and tempest.

Owing to a settlement in the two western towerpiers, the spire, as a plumb-line dropped from the vane indicates, is twenty-three inches out of the perpendicular. Great fears were in consequence entertained at one time for the safety of the building, but no further movement has been detected for the last two centuries. The test of the plumb-line was repeated Sept. 30, 1858-the 600th anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral.

VIII. The west front [Title-page], a more uniform composition than that of either Wells or Lincoln, is very striking. It was no doubt the portion of the cathedral last completed, as is especially indicated by the occurrence among its mouldings of the ball-flower, characteristic, for the most part, of the Decorated style of the

fourteenth century. The front itself consists of a central compartment, rising into a steep gable, and flanked by two lower compartments, the angles of which are supported by square buttress towers, capped by small spires. A small square buttress rises on each side of the central compartment, in which is a triple porch with canopies, and the western window, a triplet divided by slender clustered columns. In the gable are two double lancets. The entire front is divided into five stories by its mouldings, and the canopies of its blind arcades originally sheltered a host of more than a hundred statues, only eight of which were remaining when the restoration of the front was begun in 1865. (For a description of the whole of the statues which now fill the niches, see APPENDIX, Note II.) The great defect of this west front is one which it shares in common with Wells and Lincoln. It is unreal, since it does not form the natural ending of nave and aisles, but is a screen built up against, and concealing them. The buttress turrets at the extremities are poor and mean; and as no western towers were intended, it is difficult to see why such a false front was erected at all. The display of statuary must have been the chief object.

The consecration crosses, on different parts of the exterior, are numerous and fine. (See woodcut, end of Part I.)

Between 1862 and 1864, the exterior of the cathedral was carefully restored, under Mr. Scott's direction. The foundations were strengthened throughout with concrete; the stonework of the basement moulding

was repaired or renewed; a channel, covered with Portland cement, was formed round the building, and the whole ground was well drained. Some of the flying buttresses, which were in a dangerous state, were entirely rebuilt, and the others repaired. Pinnacles, finials, parapet copings, cornices, and the stonework generally were made good; and the shafts, capitals, and bases of the windows, originally of Purbeck, were restored in Devonshire marble, fitter for external work, since it longer resists both time and weather.

IX. The north porch, which serves as the usual entrance to the cathedral, is large and fine, lined with a double arcade, and having a chamber in its upper story. The pinnacles on either side of the gable should be noticed, and the entire porch may be compared with that at Christchurch, Hants., of the same age and character. Like that, the north porch of Salisbury may have been used for a school, or for other purposes of instruction. Sentences of excommunication were published before it; and it has been suggested, though perhaps with no great probability, that it served as a galilee,' or outer chapel for penitents.

One of the most peculiar features of Salisbury cathedral, its masonry, has been especially noticed by Professor Willis :-"The regularity of the size of the stones is astonishing. As soon as they had finished one part, they copied it exactly in the next, even though the additional expense was considerable. The masonry runs in even bands, and you may follow it from the south transept, eastward, round to the north transept, after

which they have not taken such great pains in their regularity. It is almost impossible to distinguish where they could have left off, for it is hardly to be supposed that they could have gone on with all the parts at the same time." This great regularity in the masonry, it should be observed, is a distinctive peculiarity of the Early English period.

X. We now enter the nave [Plate I.], and the visitor, if he has passed into it through the north porch, should proceed at once to the western extremity, for the sake of the general view. The general effect, in spite of a certain coldness arising from want of stained glass, is exceedingly beautiful, the perfect uniformity of the architecture contributing not a little towards it. Even Wyatt's arrangement of the monuments, on the continuous plinth between each pier, monstrous in its principle, and altogether inaccurate in its execution, has a certain solemn grandeur when the two long rows of warriors and prelates are contemplated from the western end of the nave, without any examination of details. The nave itself is divided into ten bays by clustered columns of Purbeck marble, the design of which is a quatrefoil, with smaller detached shafts at the cardinal points. The whole is of Purbeck, but these shafts only are polished. They are generally in two lengths, and a brass ring covers the joint. These shafts, which are cut longways, against the grain of the stone, have greatly decayed. The main piers are

e From Professor Willis's (unpublished) lecture on Salisbury Cathedral, 1849.