The outside of the nave is of florid gothic, but it is not of a pure style; nor is the southern portal, which, nevertheless, considered as a whole, is bold and appropriate.  On each side of the door-way were originally three statues, whose tabernacles remain, though the saints have been torn out of the niches.  Over the door is a bas-relief, containing numerous figures disposed in three compartments, and representing some legendary tale, which our knowledge of that kind of lore would not enable us to decipher.—­The exterior of the choir is likewise of pointed architecture:  it is considerably more simple, and excels, in this respect, the rest of the church.  But even here there is a great want of uniformity:  some of the windows are deeply imbedded in the walls; others are nearly on a level with their surface.—­The cupola, which caps the low central tower, is wretchedly at variance with the other parts of the building.  It was erected in the year 1714, at the expence of the bishop, Francis de Nesmond; and it is, as might be expected from a performance of that period, rather Grecian than gothic.  Whichever style it may be termed, it is a bad specimen of either.  And yet, such as it is, we are assured by Beziers, that it was built after the designs of a celebrated architect of the name of Moussard, and that it excited particular attention, and called forth loud praises, on the part of the Marechal de Vauban, who was, probably, a better judge of a modern fortification, than of a gothic cathedral.

The interior of the church consists of a wide nave, with side-aisles, and chapels beyond them.  The first six piers of the nave are very massy, and faced with semi-circular pillars supporting an entablature.  The arches above them are Norman, encircled with rich bands, composed chiefly of the chevron moulding and diamonds.  On one of them is a curious border of heads, as upon the celebrated door-way at Oxford; but the heads at Bayeux are of much more regular workmanship and more distinctly defined.  Had circumstances allowed, I would have sent you an accurate drawing of them; but our time did not permit such a one to be made, and I must beg of you to be contented with the annexed slight sketch.

[Illustration:  Border of heads]

The wall above the arches is incrusted with a species of tessellated work of free-stone, of varied patterns, some interwoven, others reticulated, as seen in the sketches:  the lines indented in the stones, as well as the joints which form the patterns, are filled with a black cement or mastich, so as to form a kind of niello.

[Illustration:  Tessellated work of free stone]