lar pillars of
smaller diameter. The pier consists of a pilaster fronted by a
cylindrical column, continuing to about four-fifths of the height of the
roof. Two cylindrical columns then rise from it; so that from this point
upwards, the pier becomes a clustered column: angular brackets
sculptured into knots, grotesque heads, and foliage, are affixed to the
bases of the derivative pillars. A bold double-billeted moulding is
continued below the clerestory, whose windows adapt themselves to the
binary arrangement of the bays of the nave; that is to say, a taller
arch is flanked by a smaller one, on its right side, or on its left
side, as the situation requires; these are supported by short massy
pillars; and an embattled moulding runs round the windows. These
features are Norman; but in other portions of the church, the architect
Romanises again, as in St. Nicholas. The piers of the aisle-arches are
of considerable width: the pillars at each angle are connected by an
architrave, distinctly enounced, running along the front of the pier,
and interposed between the capitals and the springing of the well-turned
semi-circular arch. The triforium is composed of a tier of semi-circular
arches, nearly of equal span with those below. The perspective of the
building is grand and palatial. In the evening, when it is illuminated
only by a few faintly-burning tapers, the effect of the gleams of light,
reflected from the returns of the arches and pillars, is particularly
fine. Beyond the central arch which supports the tower, all is lost in
gloom, except that at the extremity of the choir, the star-light just
breaks through the topmost windows above the altar.--In the church of
St. Stephen, the leading ideas of the architect were still influenced by
the Roman basilica; a third and more fanciful modification is to be
observed in the coeval church of the Holy Trinity. Here the piers are
narrower; the columns supporting the aisle-arches are consequently
brought closer together, and the architrave is less prominent than at
St. Stephen's: there the embattled moulding is confined to the
clerestory; in the present church, it runs round the principal arches;
and, instead of the lofty triforium which there surmounts the
side-aisles, the walls which we now describe are threaded by a gallery
supported by misproportioned pillars, whose capitals exhibit every
possible variety of grotesque invention. The bold archivolts beneath the
central tower are c