fidence is the Cathedral of Soissons, which has been already mentioned as finished in 1212, thirty years after Canterbury; and yet it is very little more advanced in style, except in the particular feature of plate-tracery. On the other hand, the south transept of Soissons, which is lower than the rest of the building, and evidently belongs

to an earlier structure, is itself of transitional character; it is said to have been built in 1175: several other churches of the neighbourhood are of similar character to this transept.

The hall of the public Hospital at Angers (157) has been already mentioned at p. 82, but it appears to form so important a link of connection between the architecture of England and that of Anjou, as to require some further notice. It was built by King Henry II., begun in 1177, and opened by him in state with much ceremony in 1184, the same year that the choir of Canterbury was completed: the mouldings and details are almost pure Gothic, although the windows are round-headed; the vaulting is very remarkable as a transition between the domical vaults of Anjou and the Early English vault. During the time that this hospital was building, Henry II. held his court at Angers, which necessarily assembled the nobles and prelates from Normandy in the north to Guienne in the south, together with those from England; and a better opportunity for the spread of the new fashion could hardly have been devised. During the same period Anjou was afflicted with a sore famine, and England undertook to feed the people of this province for six months; large quantities of corn were sent over for this purpose, and the large public granary, or barn, attached to this hospital was in all probability erected on that occasion: it is in the style of transition, a little earlier than the hall e.

The small cathedral of Bethlehem, in the county of Nevers, built about 1200, in the pure lancet style, has been already mentioned at p. 59.

The nave of the church of S. Nicholas at Blois, 1186-1210, is of decidedly transitional character, with a fine west window of platetracery, before referred to from its resemblance to one at Lincoln, but with no Gothic details; the rest of the work is of far less advanced character than Lincoln.

The provinces of Auvergne and Velay have quite a distinct character of their own. The cathedral of Le Puy in Velay is one of the most remarkable churches in Europe: the lower part of the east wall is of late Roman work, built of fragments of earlier Roman buildings, but the domical vaults and the greater part of the church belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Most of the other churches of this very remarkable district belong to the same period:

• See the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, vol. cevi. p. 284, and the authorities there cited.

they bear more resemblance to those of Perigord than to any other part of France, but seem rather as following a common type than as copied one from the other. There is little doubt that when the history of these buildings properly investigated their apparent anomalies will be found to confirm, rather than to disturb, the general history of architecture; and it is probable that the clue to these variations will be found in the ecclesiastical history of these provinces. We know from early Christian history that the French Church was of Oriental origin, and it seems evident that the different dioceses long maintained a considerable degree of independence, and some of them kept up a friendly intercourse with the Eastern Church, so long as the Greek Emperor at Byzantium continued to command the commerce of the Mediterranean, which was until the middle of the eleventh century; previous to that' time Venice was a subordinate city of the great Empire, to the commerce of which it succeeded. I have before pointed out, p. 189, that there were two main lines of commerce through France from the East at that period; one ascending the Rhone from Marseilles by Avignon, Vienne, and Lyons, and branching off in various directions, as to Grenoble and Geneva eastward, to Le Puy and Auvergne westward; the other from Narbonne to Perigueux, Limoges, and Poitiers, branching off to Cahors, Angoulême, &c. As usual, commerce, civilization, and religion travelled together and assisted each other. Oriental influences may be traced by these channels in various ways, of which the architecture is one only, although an im. portant one: various local customs are continued; Oriental tissues and reliquaries are still preserved in the treasuries of the churches in obscure places: the distinct uses in the liturgies of different dioceses, each with its own breviary, have also in some instances continued to our own day. This connection with the East was more kept up in some dioceses than in others, and the architecture is now perhaps the best record of this connection, but other records are not wanting: Bishop Peter I. of Le Puy was consecrated at Ravenna in 1043, on his return from Palestine; Greek priests are recorded to have resided for a long period at Angoulême in the eleventh and twelfth centuries: the street of the Venetians at Limoges has been mentioned. This Oriental influence, however, was not uniform in its effects, and was much modified by local circumstances: the style

f See Gibbon's Roman Empire, chap. liii.

of Auvergne, with its long nave and its barrel-vault, and the seg、 mental vaults to the aisles, the dome over the central space, and semi-dome vaults to the apsidal chapels, is almost confined to this district. The chapel of St. Michael, over the great western porch, or narthex, may perhaps be considered as another of the peculiarities; although it occurs occasionally in many other places, as at Tournus, S. Benoit sur Loire, and in Switzerland at Romainmotier. But they are rare with us, and more common in Auvergne than anywhere else.

The use of tiles inlaid in stone in the face of the wall, for ornament, is another characteristic of Auvergne, though it is used also at Lyons and Vienne: the use of different coloured stones for external ornament is another feature, very natural in this volcanic district, where the variety of material close at hand is so great; it is more remarkable that they did not use it for internal ornament, but conformed to the medieval usage of a coat of plaster as a ground for painting upon, and trusted almost entirely to painting and gilding for internal ornament, as in other places.

The Early French style differs in many respects from the Early English, although agreeing with it in general character.

Their churches are generally on a larger scale than ours, and are particularly distinguished by much greater height this seems to have been the chief object of ambition of the French architects; each strove to make his central vault more lofty than his predecessors, until this was carried to such excess that every idea of proportion in the other parts of the building was sacrificed to it, and the enormous flying buttresses which were necessary to carry these vaults became perfect scaffoldings of stone, whilst the towers could scarcely be carried above the level of the roof. The larger French churches also have very frequently double aisles, which are a rare feature in England; and as they require the flying buttresses to be double also, with an upright pinnacle

Shewing the French flying-buttress with two arches, one over the other.

standing up between the divisions, these add considerably to the appearance of stone scaffolding on the exterior.

At St. Denis, almost the only parts remaining of the time of Suger are the crypt and the apsidal chapels : the whole of the interior of the choir, with the clearstory and vault, were rebuilt about a century afterwards; and the flying buttresses, which rise from the