the
kingdom."

Fergusson, in his "History of Architecture," also praises it: "Its upper
part exhibits the most beautiful and perfect design for window tracery
in the world. All the parts are in such just harmony the one to the
other--the whole is so constructively appropriate and at the same time
so artistically elegant--that it stands quite alone, even among windows
of its own age."

"The stone-work of all this part (the east window) is entirely new,
although it reproduces most minutely the original design" (King, 202-3).

"The whole of the _mouldings_, both of the mullions and tracery,
_externally_ are nearly destroyed, owing to the perishable nature of the
stone with which it is constructed" (Billing, p. 60 (1840)).

This great window almost entirely fills the east end of the choir, being
51 feet high from the sill to the top of the tracery and about 26 feet
wide in the clear.

Immediately after the fire in 1292, the work was started, and the jambs
with their slender shafts and foliated capitals were erected. Nothing
more was done till about the middle of the fourteenth century, when the
arch mullions were added; and the tracery dates from about the end of
the same century. The mouldings were left unfinished until the
restoration of the cathedral, 1856. The tracery (Decorated) is composed
of eighty-six pieces struck from 263 centres. Some of the pieces forming
the chief divisions are nearly five feet in length. Although the
stone-work is modern, the design has been most faithfully copied from
the original. In the lower part there are nine lights, no other
Decorated window in existence having so many. The west window of Durham
Cathedral (partly copied from, but inferior to, the west window of York)
and the Rose window in the south transept at Lincoln are of the same
character; but that of York ranks next in importance, and is the only
window able to compete with the east window of Carlisle.

The design consists of two complete compositions united under one head
by interposing a third. The York window, on the contrary, is altogether
one complete design, from which no part can be separated without
breaking the integrity of the composition.

The width of the opening is the same in both windows, but while the
actual tracery of the York window is more than two feet higher, the
Carlisle window is greatly superior in the beautiful arch mouldings
above its tracery, and also in the side shafts and mouldings.

Again s