OUR REPRESENTATIVE MAN. 287 



observe in those side-lights how the old glass has been pre- 

 served." 



With this he has begun and finished any and every Cathe- 

 dral. If he can get to some part of the building and 

 decipher a Latin inscription before our arrival, he will tell us 

 that " here was buried old Gozlan de Poing ; we ought to 

 find his tomb somewhere about with an effigy." Then he 

 used to pretend to be searching for it. Presently he would 

 announce, joyfully that his labours had been rewarded. 

 " Here it is ! " he would exclaim, pointing to a broken-nosed 

 warrior, doing his best to seem at his ease in the most un- 

 comfortable armour. " Here's Sir Gozlan. Look ! He was 

 three times at the Crusades, you see ; that you know by his 

 having his legs crossed three times," and so on. 



" What," asked my Grandmother, "is the date of Norman 

 architecture ? — and is Gothic later .? ^' 



"Well," replied my Well-informed Friend, considering the 

 matter, "the Norman was first, of course ; " he evidently had 

 his doubts on the subject, and was making another mental 

 ilfe7n. — to look it up directly he got home. " The Norman," 

 he continued, " was first, and the Gothic improved on it." 



" But," said my Grandmother, who is wonderful for her 

 years, " if the Goths were such barbarians — as they lifen', or 

 why should everyone with bad taste be called a Goth or a 

 Vandal ? — how is it they built such beautiful churches ? " 



" Ah ! " replied my Well-informed Friend, with a sort of 

 sigh, and a shrug that seemed to intimate how, at last, my 

 worthy relative had formulated in so many words ^/le diffi- 

 culty of his lifetime. " Ah ! that's it ! How did the Egyp- 



