12 PAPERS, ETC. 



here and elaewhere has very much aflFected the general 

 character of the building. I am by no means clear that 

 the change was not an improvement ; still it seems too 

 hazardous an experiment to be altogether justifiable. 



WEST FKONTS. 



In those chiirches wliere the tower is central, scope is 

 thereby given for a regulär fa9ade at the west end, which 

 otherwise is in most cases sacrificed to the western tower. 

 Now no one who has given much attention to our old 

 churches, can have faUed to remark that Ln no respect are 

 they generally more defective than in this. No real archi- 

 tectural design is commonly extended to it ; the naves and 

 aisles are left, as it were, to finish themselves as they can ; 

 their terminations, in fact, remain a mere end, and do not 

 aspire to the dignity of a front. This is seen very conspi- 

 cuously in St. Giles', Northampton, and still more so even 

 in a church in every other respect so magnificent as that of 

 StafFord. Such cases as Felmersham and Berkeley are 

 indeed very superior ; but even here, though the termi- 

 nations of the two naves are beautiful in the extreme, 

 the ends of the aisles are entirely unworthy of the rest, 

 and exclude anything like a regulär architectural deaign. 

 In the Peqjendicular of Somerset we often find this blot 

 removed. Certainly in many cases, even in Somerset, we 

 find good opportunlties thrown away. At Wedmore there is 

 little pretence to a regulär front, and at Dunster none at all; 

 while at Axbridge, where there is a little more, it is greatly 

 concealed by the parapets. But, on the other hand, even in 

 such comparatively piain west ends as North Curry and 

 Stoke St. Gregory, there is a real design, though a very 

 simple one, and a degree of finish elsewhere unusual. Wood- 

 epring Priory has only the termination of a nave, (the single 



