42 PAPERS, ETC. 



yet very unlike it. Nothing can at first sight seem more 

 dissimilar than the soaring Clusters of KedcUfFe and the 

 huge masses of waU which divide the arches at Sherbome. 

 Yet a little consideration will show that the style of the 

 two is essentiaUy the same, and even that the leading idea 

 is the same, the diflFerences being occasioned by the 

 respective circumstances of the two churches. RedclifFe 

 was a Perpendicular church erected from the gromid; 

 Sherbome was a remodeUing of an earlier ßomanesque 

 minster. The vast piers of its predecessor probably lurk 

 beneath the casing of shafts and mouldings with which 

 the art of later days has enveloped them. They preserve 

 their old height and their own circumference, or probably 

 a stUl greater one than of old. But such piers as these 

 could never be made part of a true Continuous Gothic 

 ränge. The architect clearly feit this; he attempted 

 no arcade ; he made the roof and its supports the main 

 feature, and thrust the arches behind them, not so much a 

 continued ränge, as separate gateways attached by responds 

 to the vast masses which bear up the roof. The vault Springs 

 from a shaft rising from the ground; the panelled rear-arch 

 of the window also rises from the ground ; everything is 

 concentrated on the wall and the roof ; the arches, timidly 

 retiring, are only one degree more important than 

 those which open into the side chapels of King's College. 

 Hence the gigantic clerestory, in estimating which we must 

 also remember that the old triforium had to be swallowed 

 up. The triforium space is, to my mind, better treated than 

 in the nave of RedclifFe; certainly it is better adapted to the 

 leading idea of the elevation. 



The nave of Sherbome is very inferior to the presbytery. 

 The elevation consists of two parts utterly unconnected 



