ln, comprised, no doubt,
two towers rising at the western extremity of the side aisles of the
nave, having a Norman base with circular lights, and an additional
transept, projecting north and south beyond the line of the side
aisles. But before this design could be carried into execution,
architecture itself had undergone a change; pointed arches were
substituted for circular ones, and slender isolated columns for the
clustered shaft, or solid cylinder. Hence the difference in style of
the tower just referred to: the string moulding at the base of it,
together with the superstructure, and the pinnacles and pediment which
surmount the adjacent transept, being all of a later order than the
work of the nave: and hence also the union of both styles in the
transept itself--its lofty arches, parallel to the side walls, being
highly pointed, but with the zigzag ornament, and resting on Norman
shafts; and the doorways of the front having circular heads, in
accommodation to the arches of the nave, but with pointed mouldings and
pillars.

"The tower, towards the south, appears never to have been finished,
although unquestionably included in the architect's design. The present
base, above the transept, is of a comparatively modern date, and
altogether inferior to the work of the north-west tower. In the
progress of great undertakings it not unfrequently happens that fresh
objects present themselves to the mind, which at first were not thought
of. Such appears to have been the case in respect of this cathedral,
the architect of which, while completing the front, seems to have
caught a new idea--that of erecting two lofty turrets beyond the outer
angles of the transept, towards the west, and of converting the
intermediate space into a sort of piazza, by arches constructed in
front of the nave and closed in above by a vaulted roof. This idea so
unique and at the same time so splendid, he was enabled to realize: and
posterity, at the distance of six centuries, beholds with ineffable
delight and admiration, a composition, the outlines and details of
which, for their beauty and variety, render it one of the noblest
facades in existence. Towards the north and south are two lofty
turrets, flanked at the angles by clustered shafts, rising from a
projecting base and crowned with spires, the height of which from the
ground, makes a square with the breadth of the front. The space between
these turrets is occupied by three pointed arches, rea