West Front.

The general character is so strongly Perpendicular, that some doubt has been expressed as to the accuracy of the judgment which has assigned this work to Edingdon; but a comparison of it with the architecture of Edingdon Church in Wiltshire, certainly built by this bishop (whose birthplace was there), will show the same Perpendicular features almost as fully developed, although that church is of somewhat earlier date(the first stone was laid in 1352). The will of Bishop Edingdon orders that a portion of his property should be expended on the nave of the cathedral which he had begun (ad perfectionem navis ecclesiæ cathedralis Winton. a se inchoata); and there is a marked difference in design between the work assigned to Edingdon and that known to be due to Wykeham and his successors. The two westernmost windows on the north side of the nave differ altogether from those eastward of them. [See Plate VI., in which they are shown.] The exterior mouldings are far deeper and less graceful than those of Wykeham's windows. A set-off in the wall above them marks the boundary of this earlier work. The westernmost buttress is probably Edingdon's, but the upper part of the two others, with the string course and the pinnacles, were no doubt added by Wykeham, since they agree with the rest of his work. The west window [Frontispiece] of which the design "reduces itself to the merest stone grating," together with the western porches [Plate II.], are also shown to be Edingdon's, by the fact that in all the panellings of the window, as well as in the porches, a

The cusps of Wykeham's [Both are shown in Plate

peculiar flowered cusp is used, which occurs also in the interior wall and window panelling of the two bays on the north side of the nave. panels and lights are plain. V.]. The gable and turrets of the west front were probably uncompleted at Edingdon's death, and were added by Wykeham, whose statue still remains in the niche at the top of the gable above the window. Figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, to whom the church is dedicated, formerly occupied the tabernacled niches between the porches; over which is an exterior gallery, as at Exeter.

IV. Before entering, the visitor should remark the grand view of the interior obtained through the open central door. The length of Winchester (555 feet 8 inches from this entrance to the extreme eastern buttresses) exceeds that of any other cathedral on this side of the Alps. The mean external length of Ely (the north and south walls are not exactly equal), is 537 feet. The internal length of Canterbury is 514 feet. The effect of this great length, 390 feet of which (as far as the end of the choir) are visible from the west door unbroken by the organ, which is placed under the north tower-arch, is in the highest degree grand and impressive. A certain coldness, arising

It seems probable that these three (Winchester, Ely, and Canterbury) are the longest cathedrals that exist, with the exception of St. Peter's at Rome, the extreme length of which, within the walls, is 607 feet. The cathedral of Milan (the largest of all mediæval cathedrals) covers one-third more ground than Winchester, but is not so long by 100 feet.