ry which is apt to mislead a casual observer.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The headpiece is from an engraving in Walpoole's "British
Traveller."

[2] A paper on this subject was printed in the Wiltshire Archaeological
Mag., No. lvi.

[3] So misspelt in the text quoted.

THE CATHEDRAL--EXTERIOR.

Salisbury stands alone among English cathedrals for unity of design.
To own its possession of this quality, which is undoubtedly both the
earliest and the most mature impression the cathedral imparts, is by
no means equivalent to unqualified praise. There are buildings of
equal and less importance, whence illustrations might be taken for a
complete history of every period of Gothic architecture; here the
examples would be limited not only to one style, but if we except the
upper stories of the tower and its spire, the cloisters, and a few
minor additions, to a very restricted use of Early English, as it was
practised from A.D. 1220 to 1258.

Another uncommon feature not so apparent at first sight, but yet
almost, if not quite as rare, is that the present building was erected
on a virgin site. It is hard to find a mediaeval church of any
importance in England that is not only upon the self-same site, but
more often in part upon the actual foundation of an earlier edifice.
Consistency is the especial character of Salisbury, and now, owing to
Wyatt's iconoclastic destruction of the two later chapels at its east
end, we have in Salisbury "the most typical English cathedral," which
is also our most complete example of Early English.

That this artistic unity is as interesting as a design subsequently
modified by other influences, may be an open question. There are those
who think Salisbury "faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly
null," yet they would hardly dare to continue the quotation and say it
was "dead perfection, no more." Even at a time when mediaeval art was
not generally appreciated in England, this cathedral won admiration
from chance visitors such as Evelyn, who saw it in July, 1654, and
pronounced it "the completest Gothic work in Europe." Pepys, who also
left his impressions of it, says: "The minster most admirable, as big
I think and handsomer than Westminster, and a most large close about
it and offices for the officers thereof, and a fine palace for the
bishop." In later times Motley, the historian, thought it "too neat."
Henry James calls it "a blonde beauty among churches," and even hints
that it is a