h was a labour of love to
so many successive abbots.

The Church of S. Pierre, Caen, which has a fine tower with a beautiful
pierced spire, is a good example of the second period of the Gothic
style in France, and at Rouen the Rayonnant and Flamboyant phases are
exceptionally well illustrated. The Abbey Church of S. Ouen was built
entirely in the 14th century, and, with its characteristic high-pitched
roofs over each bay of the aisles, its lofty towers--those at the west
end with tapering spires--its delicately sculptured portals, double
tiers of flying buttresses, triple division of arcades, triforium, and
clerestory in the nave, the number and beauty of its stained glass
windows, its graceful clustered piers, that rise without a break from
the ground to the springing of the vault, and its beautiful chevet, with
its circlet of eleven chapels, is an epitome of all the most
characteristic features of Gothic architecture.

The Church of St. Maclou in the same town is a fine gem of Flamboyant
work, with its stilted arches, tapering spires and pinnacles, and lavish
internal and external decoration, whilst in the Cathedral of Rouen can
be recognised details of each of the three stages of French Gothic,
combined with those of the later Renaissance. The western facade,
lateral portals, towers, spires, and fine rose windows are typically
Flamboyant, and the general view of the interior, with its long vista of
nave and choir, its slightly pointed arcading, two tiers of which divide
the nave from the aisles, and, above all, its simple but most effective
vaulting, is essentially that of an early example of the pointed style,
that of the Lady Chapel being especially effective.

Good secular examples of the Gothic style in France are the Palais de
Justice and Hotel de Bourgtheroulde, both at Rouen, the Chateau of Coucy
near Laon, the Hotel de Cluny, Paris, the Chateau de Pierrefonds in
Normandy, and, most characteristic of all, the House of Jacques Coeur
at Bourges. It was, however, in Belgium that Gothic municipal and
domestic architecture reached its noblest development, the great halls
of the towns being remarkable for their dignified and massive
appearance, and, except in the latest examples built after the decadence
had set in, for the severe restraint of their ornamentation. Of
rectangular plan, and several stories in height, with steeply pitched
roofs, the gable ends adorned with many pinnacles, and the long sloping
sides