24 PAPERS, ETC. 
but the two windows are grouped into one by an arch 
which rises from a shaft continued from the pier, and 
cerossed by a band at the level of the string over the arch. 
This shaft also supports the tie-beam roof, the spandril 
between which and the containing arch of the window 
is filled up with timber devices. 
Altogether this range is the most thoroughly artistie 
and harmonious I know ; as a matter of skill, it actually 
surpasses Redecliffe, where we can only find an ideal perfec- 
tion by uniting portions of the nave and of the transepts. 
At Walden, every part is wonderfully adapted and fused 
into every other part; the whole, from the floor to 
the roof, is one faultless and harmonious design. The 
arrangement adapted in the clerestory admits the magni- 
ficent effect of the numerous range of windows, avoiding 
alike the bareness left by the moderate single window, 
and the somewhat erushing effect which would have resulted 
had one unbroken window filled up the whole space 
above the pier-arch. At the same time it retains the 
superior unity attaching to the latter arrangement. Great 
St. Mary’s at Cambridge, which, in most respects, closely 
imitates Saffron Walden, has the common East-Anglian 
arrangement in the elerestory. I am not sure that in either 
case the spandril-work over the chancel-arch is any im- 
provement. At Walden, this mode of ornament is even 
extended tothe back face of the arches towards the aisles. 
The germ of these arrangements is doubtless to be 
found in those arches in the choir of Ely, where the old 
Norman proportion and the perfection of Decorated 
detail are both so marvellously united with the full de- 
velopment of every prineiple of Continuous composition.* 
* See Proceedings for 1852, p. 39 ; History of Architecture, p. 389. 
