ing width of the nave, the
simple but most effective vaulting of it, the double aisles and the
choir; the shortness of the transepts, atoned for by the unusual length
of the semicircular apse, with its circlet of chapels; the combination
in the clerestory of pointed-headed and rose windows, and, above all,
the exquisitely proportioned and spacious triforium, which surmounts the
whole of the double aisles and forms a circular gallery with arcaded
openings, harmonising alike with those of the nave below and the
clerestory above, and a stone vault of pointed intersecting arches
springing from slender clustered columns.

[Illustration: Gothic Arcade]

[Illustration: Gothic Steeple]

Contemporaneous with Notre Dame is Laon Cathedral, the original and
characteristic chevet of which was replaced in the early 13th century by
a square termination, in imitation it is supposed of some English
church, but which otherwise resembles the Cathedral of Paris, especially
in its fine western facade and open vaulted triforium. In the Cathedral
of Chartres, founded in the 12th century, but practically rebuilt in the
13th after its almost complete destruction by fire, the further progress
of the style may be studied, its arches being more stilted and its nave
and choir wider than those of its predecessors, whilst its closed-in
triforium is significant of the ever increasing height of the roofs,
necessitating the strengthening of the walls, a change that was,
however, quickly succeeded and, to a great extent, neutralised by the
piercing and filling in with glass of the wall behind the arcading.
Other characteristics of Chartres Cathedral are the noble sculptures of
the west front, that are not only among the finest but the least injured
in France, those of the south and north porches that are scarcely
inferior, the dignified towers surmounted by beautiful and graceful
spires of different but harmonious designs, and the double tier of
flying buttresses of the nave. The last named are moreover of unusual
construction, each consisting of two parts, the upper strengthened by an
arcade with round-headed arches, springing from massive stunted piers,
that seem to connect the advanced Gothic of the rest of the building,
with the late Romanesque style.

The Cathedral of Rheims is another typical Gothic building with a
western facade, the deeply recessed central portal of which is
especially fine, resembling those of Notre Dame, Laon, and Chartres;