The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-28

more inherent In their aspect, Inc mebrO-
politan church of Our Lady, the seat
of the long line of Primates of Belgic
Gaul and Premier Peers Of France,
is we'll known rs one of the
noblest churches of Gaul and of Chris
tendon. The church with which it seems
most natural to compare 1t is the nearly
contemporary cathedral Of Aniens. Each
has the advantage, as much to be priced
in an artistic as to be regretted IN an his
torical point of view, of being perfect and
almost untouched specimen of O single style,
and that the beautiful French style OF the
thirteenth century. Both these noble
buildings are intensely French; neither shows
any sign of that approach to English or
Norman work of which we can see some
clear traces at Laon. All the distinctive
characteristics of the great French churches
come out strongly in both of them; the
apse and its surrounding chapels, the vast
portals of the western front, the great rose
windows of the transepts. In point of
height Amiens surpasses Rheims; but we are
not sure that this excess of height is wholly
an advantage on the side of Amiens. The
vast height of Amiens not only cuts off all
hope of q central tower, but deprives the
church of any adequate towers at all.
The western towers of Amiens,
if towers we may call them, strive,
feebly and with imperfect success, to rear
themselves above the ridge of that mighty
roof. At Rheims two noble and well-propor-
toned towers still expecting their unfinished
spires, form the proper finish of the building
In Short while Amiens outside is simply
shapeless, Rheims forms as well-designed
whole as any church can which lacks that
crown of the central tower which English and
Norman eyes will always crave as indispensa-
BILE to a perfect outline. The vast height
of Amiens, again, makes the transept
fronts look almost like towers, while at
Rheims real fronts with side towers,
like those of Bordeaux and Rouen,
have been designed and partly carried up. In
the internal effect Amiens must claim the
first place; the majesty of its vast scale and
faultless proportion puts it above competi-
tion. Yet Rheims treads close upon its heels,
and in some of its arrangements it is perhaps
more satisfactory. The proportions of the
arcade, triforium, and clecestory at Rheims
are admirably managed, and the pillars are
better and more truly Gothic than those at
Amiens. The huge foriated capitals, how
ever, are certainly disproportioned, and they
arrest the eye more strongly than the CAPT
tails of clustered pillars ought to do. In point
of furniture Rheims has nothing to set
against the unrivalled stalls and sculp-
Ouens, seems to us to gain greatly both in
side and out, from the absence of those
chapels between the buttresses of the nave
which in some churches were designed from
the beginning, and which at Amiens are a
later addition. At Amiens by this means the
bold simplicity of the ranges of buttresses at
Rheims and Saint Ouens has been exchanged
for flat wall.
great deal of the internal effect of Rheims
cathedral is due to its great store of rich and
early stained glass and to the admirable color
of its stone. 1t is a church through which
one may walk day after day and find new beau
ties at every visit. And it is pleasant too to
sit and study the exquisite work of the west
front, its harmonious proportions, its noble
doorway and rose windows, it's ranges of
sculpture adapted to the architecture and not
thrusting themselves forward to its prejudice.
And we need not say that there is no lack of
historic interest in church which has wit
messed the crowning of so many kings, and
where the interest of the two latest corona
tions is certainly not the least. Here Louis
the Sixteenth and Charles the Tenth received
the crown which each was in different ways
to lose. Here Louis the Eighteenth forbore
to seek the outward ensigns of kingship
which he, alone of the three brothers, con-
trived to keep to the end of his days. And it
is with strange feeling that we tread the for
saken chambers of the palace, standing,
through so many changes of the last forty
years, swept and garnished, ready for the next
ruler who may deem the consecrating oil of
Rheims to be needful part of his investi-
ture. Yet, with all this a higher interest
still attaches to the other great church of
Rheims, the famous Abbey of Saint Remi-
gius, "the mickle minister at Remys" as it
stands recorded in the language of our ancient
chronicles To an ordinary observer there is
no comparison between the two churches.
Without, instead of the noble towers of the
metropolitan church, Saint Remigius pre-
sents an outline which is absolutely shape
less; long awkward length of roof is broken
only by difference of height in the roof
itself, and by way of towers there is nothing
beyond two insignificant turrets fanking the
west front. Within, instead of the uniform
style and soaring height of the cathedral, we
have building whose main feature is in its
enormous breadth, and whose architec-
ture, simple and massive, is a mere
patchwork of various dates. The tomb
and shrine of the saint himself, which by
unusual good luck have weathered all
storms, are fine in themselves, but of late
cate and workmanship, the tomb being sur
rounded by figures representing those twelve
Peers of France, temporal and ecclesiastical,
who were extemporized, as it would seem, to
suit the convenience of Philip Augustus.
Yet, as the eye ranges over the wide expanse
of the ''mickle minister it soon learns to
feel that excess of breadth, coupled with the
vast length of Saint Remigius, has in it an
element of majesty of different kind, no
less then excess of height. The eye also
soon picks out much detail of no small beauty,
and it rests with greater satisfaction still on
parts Of the building which, though they have