ut also Gothic in detail and feeling. Like the
masts of a great harbor, an innumerable forest of carved and stony
trunks rise from every angle, buttress, turret, and pier. In among them,
facing their carved trunks and crowning their tops, peeping out from the
myriads of stony branches, stands a heavenly legion of saints and
martyrs. Crowned and celestial kings and angels people this petrified
forest of such picturesque and exuberant beauty.

[Illustration: Photo by A. Vadillo

CATHEDRAL OF BURGOS

The spires above the house-tops]

The general mass that rises above the roofs, now flat and covered with
reddish ochre tiles, is, whatever may be the defects of its detail,
almost unique in its lavish richness. The spires rest upon the
house-tops of Burgos like the jeweled points of a monarch's crown. The
detail is so profuse that it well-nigh defies analysis. It seems as if
the four corners of the earth must for generations have been ransacked
to find a sufficient number of carvers for the sculpture. The closer one
examines it, the more astonishing is the infinite labor. Rich, crocketed
cornices support the numerous, crowning balconies. Figure on figure
stands against the many sides of the four great turrets that brace the
angles of the cimborio, against the eight turrets that meet its octagon,
on the corners of spires, under the parapets crowning the transepts,
under the canopied angles of the Constable's Lantern, on balconies, over
railings, and on balustrades. Crockets cover the walls like feathers on
the breast of a bird. It surely is the temple of the Lord of Hosts, the
number of whose angels is legion. It is confused, bewildering, over-done
and spectacular, lacking in character and sobriety, sculptural
fire-works if you will, a curious mixture of the passing and the coming
styles, but nevertheless it is wonderful, and the age that produced it,
one of energy and vitality. Curiously enough, the transepts have no
flying, but mere heavy, simple buttresses to meet their thrusts. The
ornamentation of the lower wall surfaces is in contrast to the
superstructure, barren or meaningless. On the plain masonry of the lower
walls of the Constable's Chapel stretch gigantic coats-of-arms. Knights
support their heads as well as the arms of the nobles interred within.
Life-sized roaring lions stand valiantly beside their wheels like
immortally faithful mariners. Above, an exquisitely carved, German
Gothic balustrade acts as a base f