Architecture In France.

the start of us there . I must , however , doubt whether they had much start of us in their sculpture . Wells cathedral was about equal in date to most of the a'reat French churches ; and the IT sculpture there will hold its own , I apprehend , with any . Take , as an instance , its sculpture as

compared with Chartres . Comparisons are , however , rendered somewhat difficult by the uncertainty of the dates themselves in many of the examples best known . Take , for instance , Amiens , better known and more written about , perhaps , than any otherfrom its nearness to our own land ,

, and its reputed date , so temptingly near to Salisbury . The latter was begun in 1220 , and finished some forty years after , on one plan . Amiens about the same ; but the works there are said to have extended to 1272 ; and then again , after a severe fireto have been renewed in the fifteenth

cen-, tury . Now , there can be no doubt whatever that a total change of the aisle plans took place after the main skeleton of Amiens was up , because the outline of the buttresses , clearly meant to be external , can still be seen ivithin the

chapelsthis pl & n . adding , in fact , another aisle to the whole building , and pushing outwards tho whole of the lower walls . These latter , therefore , with the whole of the lower windows , aisle , groining , & c , must have been added after the general skeleton of the cathedral was finished . I think ,

too , that any one carefully examining the details will say that the work externally , above the canopies of the great portals , is later , to a marked extent , than the figures below . Also , that the whole of the capitals to the traceried windows throughout are very much later than the general

skeleton of the building ; so are the parapets . Much , too , inside is clearly of a later date , so that , until the history of this great church is much more closely written from the stones themselves , than has , I think , been done , ive must scarcely take it as a good foundation for a theory of date

comparisons . We may , however , do something more by comparing it with other French works . I do so with Tours and Chartres particularly , and found the piers , capitals , abaci , groining , and many other parts , to be almost identical with one or other of these two cathedrals .

Now , the date of Chartres and of Tours is about the same , viz ., 1250 , and I do not think that we should put the upper part of Amiens at all earlier —the' tracery of the windows , the parapets , and the west front decidedly later . This middle of the thirteenth century , then , affords us a most

excellent standing point of comparison between Amiens , Tours , and Chartres of that date , Westminster and other English examples of the same time , Paris a few years earlier , and Laon of a few years earlier still . The result is curious , for if you take the mouldings and the general lightness of

the style as evidence only , the earliest , Laon , would really seem more advanced than the other French examples . The capitals are freer at the

later date , but scarcely so finely modelled , I think , and most decidedly , the ornamental work of Laon , in the exterior , exceeds by far the rest . The early French work , in fact , in general , shows such broad surfaces and is so little cut with mouldings , that I am constantly reminded of Mr . Burges ' s-

remark , that we must choose between colour and mouldings , and cannot have both—the French preferring the colour . It is not , however , very easy to find genuine examples for the study of colouring in the interior of the old French churches . There areindeedvery many ancl large traces of

, , it in many places . I may mention St . Hilaire , at Poictiers , and the cathedral of Tours in particular . But , it requires very great care in discriminating as to what was done at the time , or nearly so , of the building , ancl what was added afterwards in Renaissance times ( often upon the first ) , when

decoration was used in France most lavishly . Then all was whitewashed over , and it is sometimes no easy work to say , until we come to some decided ornament , to what date we must assign the painting . To resume as to the comparison of dates , we may , I think , be quite safe in concluding that the Pointed style in France was developed at an earlier

period there than with us , but that , in our mouldings , and our foliage , it advanced , with us to a greater degree of delicacy , refinement , and beauty of details , than ever it did in France . I know o £ nothing- in France that will equal in grace and ; delicate beauty the Early English foliage capitals ,..

or the beauty of the spandrels ancl other ornaments that we see at Lincoln or Westminster , or the Chapter-houses of Salisbury and of York , for instance . The French are , no doubt , gloriously vigorous , as Mr . Scott's fine drawings here show . Their piers and mouldingstooare bold enough

, , , but they always seem to me to have scarcely the richness that one ivould exce ] 3 t to find in them . I ' mean , of course , up to and including the thirteenth century , for there was no lack of richness afterit then ran quite to riot in its details . I should not care to trouble you much with this , even were

there time ; for , beautiful as much of the detail is , and picturesque as much of its effects , there seems throughout to be so much of it of the artificial , that its study is soon abandoned . Much of the very late work , quite of the Renaissance , is very picturesque in outline , and the skylines of the roof afford , very often quite wonderful studies . I give a few examples , enlarged from my sketches .

Before quite concluding , I should like to make a few general remarks on the French works : — 1 st , with respect to the general outline , there is no one , I suppose , who does not know the wonderfully elegant flying buttresses of Chartres , for instance , ivhich tell so well in a section . Beautiful

they are in drawing , and fine as constructive works . But the real effect , more especially at the apsidal ends , is by no means so good . In many cases ( I