86 The Architecture of Malmesbury Abbey Church. 



the arches are rich throughout, and terminate in monster heads ; 

 others of the like form act as keystones. 



The Norman clerestory has left no vestiges of itself in the interior, 

 but externally, its design, as I before mentioned, can be readily 

 ascertained. This clerestory is remarkable for its unusual height, 

 and this height is by no means wholly owing to the later recon- 

 structidn, which introduced only a very trifling increase of elevation. 

 The Norman pilasters run very nearly up to the present cornice ; 

 so that very little height has been gained, and the size of the 

 clerestory must therefore have originally been, as compared with 

 other buildings, even more remarkable than at present. The 

 windows were tall, single, round-headed lights, their jambs adorned 

 externally with medallions in circles, somewhat like those in the 

 presbytery of Llandaff Cathedral. 



This whole elevation must have been one of the very grandest 

 in England ; it has all the solemn majesty of a Bomanesque building, 

 combined with somewhat of Gothic aspiration. The bays are tall 

 and narrow, the triforium large, the clerestory still larger ; it is 

 impossible not to contrast the magnificence of this arrangement 

 with the miserable effect of the stilted piers and diminutive triforia 

 of Gloucester and Tewkesbury naves. If there be any approach 

 to a fault, it is, that the peculiar design of the triforium introduces 

 a somewhat awkward blank space in its head, and that the attempt 

 to unite the continuous vaulting-shaft and the circular pier — each 

 in itself a most magnificent feature — is not altogether successful. 



The aisles were lighted by short broad round-headed windows, 

 with arcades beneath them within. On the south side too an 

 arcade of interesting arches runs under the windows without. On 

 the north side, where the cloister stood, there is of course no 

 external arcade, and the windows are necessarily placed higher in 

 the wall. The vaulting of the aisles is quadripartite, with moulded 

 ribs ; the transverse arches are pointed, and quite plain. 



The West Front. — Of the west front only a small fragment now 

 remains, but quite sufficient to enable us to ascertain both its 

 original design, and the changes which it has undergone. At the 

 south-west corner is what at first sight appears to be the west wall 



