referring to the many additions and
repairs made necessary by crumbling walls and sinking foundations.

The worst that has arisen from this unhappy state of affairs is, not
that there has been any serious admixture of style, but rather that one
gross interpolation has been foisted upon an otherwise symmetrical
whole,--the enormous advancing buttresses which flank the portal of the
western facade; an addition of the fourteenth century, neither graceful
nor decorative, and only made necessary by a tottering wall. A pity it
is that some other equally effective method was not adopted.

The cathedral is, in a way, a satisfying representation of the cathedral
of our imagination. From a distance, at least, and in comparison with
the low-lying structures round about, it certainly appears as of great
proportions, uniform and complete in itself. Immediate contact with it
somewhat dispels these charms.

All things considered, one finds here, in this idyllic, countrified
setting, a very attractive and fairly consistent Mediaeval Gothic church
of the epoch contemporary with that of the best work of the northern
builders, showing unmistakable evidence of having been laid down on good
lines, and after a good design, in spite of the structural defects of
its foundations. From any direction it may be viewed across a quarter of
a mile of ploughed fields. The great national highroad, from the Channel
to Bordeaux, passes straight as a die through the town, and the
cross-country line of the _Chemin de-Fer de Ouest_ ambles slowly
northward or southward; with little occurring to break the quietude of
local ease. The native is for the most part engaged in garnering from
his truck farm, or in carrying its product to the railway, to be
transported to market, and pays little attention to the stray traveller
who occasionally wanders in to study the architectural offering of the
town.

A completed church was here in 1050, having been erected by a monk, Azon
by name. This was burned to the ground in an attempt to drive out a
robber band which had taken shelter therein. Leo IX. engaged Yves, Count
of Bellene and the Bishop of Alencon, to rebuild it, and restore its
former splendour. This was in the twelfth century, but, later, owing to
the insecure foundations, it was pulled down and rebuilt again. Now
nothing remains of the former twelfth and thirteenth century work but
the lady-chapel of the choir.

The interior of the nave is, at present, ent