may be seen at the back of the Choir. From the date of the
building its style may at once be recognised, allowing for a difference
which existed between England and the Continent, the latter being
somewhat in advance. The original edifice must have been a very perfect
and admirable specimen of the pointed architecture of its time in all
its purity. As it is, unfortunately, (as the antiquary would say, and, I
should add, the mere man of taste, were it not that tastes are various,
and that the proverb says they are all in nature,) the centre of the
building, forming the intersection of the transept and nave, owing to
some defect in the original construction, fell in just at the period
during which regular architecture began to waver, and the style called
in France the "Renaissance" was making its appearance. An architect of
talent, Felipe de Borgona, hurried from Toledo, where he was employed in
carving the stalls of the choir, to furnish a plan for the centre tower.
He, however, only carried the work to half the height of the four
cylindrical piers which support it. He was followed by several others
before the termination of the work; and Juan de Herrera, the architect
of the Escorial, is said to have completed it. In this design are
displayed infinite talent and imagination; but the artist could not
alter the taste of the age. It is more than probable that he would have
kept to the pure style of his model, but for the prevailing fashion of
his time. Taken by itself, the tower is, both externally and internally,
admirable, from the elegance of its form, and the richness of its
details; but it jars with the rest of the building.

Placing this tower in the background, we will now repair to the west
front. Here nothing is required to be added, or taken away, to afford
the eye a feast as perfect as grace, symmetry, grandeur, and lightness,
all combined, are capable of producing. Nothing can exceed the beauty of
this front taken as a whole. You have probably seen an excellent view of
it in one of Roberts's annuals. The artists of Burgos complain of an
alteration, made some fifty years back by the local ecclesiastical
authorities, nobody knows for what reason. They caused a magnificent
portal to be removed, to make way for a very simple one, totally
destitute of the usual sculptured depth of arch within arch, and of the
profusion of statuary, which are said to have adorned the original
entrance. This, however, has not produced