SCULPTURES OF WELLS CATHEDRAL. 63 
With very limited opportunities of forming a judgment 
on continental buildings, Mr. Markland remarked that the 
only cathedral which had occurred to him, bearing any re- 
semblance in design to the facade of Wells, is a portion of 
the cathedral of Burgos, which, vast and magnificent as it is, 
combines the greatest irregularities, with the greatest beau- 
ties. On “the portal of the Apostles” may be observed in the 
lowest tier, the twelve Apostles. In three upper windows 
nine figures form the lower part of the mullions, somewhat 
after the fashion of Caryatides. This portal is said to 
belong to the second epoch of the gothic style, viz., the 
thirteenth century, the period under our consideration.* 
Mr. Markland could not but congratulate the Society on 
the auspices under which they met that day, graced as the 
meeting was by the presence of his lordship in the chair, 
and by the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities of 
the city and itscathedral. Ifasked whether associations of 
this kind were calculated to be beneficial, we need not speak 
theoretically, but may refer to facts. To take one instance : 
the last report of the Yorkshire Architectural Society 
stated, that “ the good which has been already effected by 
that Society and the kindred Institutions is already apparent 
on all hands. It would be impossible even for a casual 
observer to traverse the county without being sensible of 
increasing attention being bestowed on its ancient architec- 
tural remains, and of the improved aspect and ecclesiastical 
character of the newly built churches.” 
Had these Societies existed earlier, how many precious 
relics might have been preserved—how much mischief in 
* I am indebted to George Vivian, Esq., of Claverton, for the oppor- 
tunity of consulting a magnificent, and in this country, a very rare work, 
entitled “ Espana artistica y monumental, par Don Gerano Pirez de 
Villa-amil, et Don Patricio Escosura.” 3 vols. folio, Paris, 1842. 
