With the sixth arch of the nave begins the pointed style.  The capitals of the pillars are complicated, and the carving upon them is an evident attempt at an imitation of the Grecian orders.  In this part of the church there is no triforium; but a row of small quartrefoils runs immediately above the ornaments of the spandrils; and above the quatrefoils is a cornice of an antique pattern, which is surmounted by a light gallery in front of the windows of the clerestory, the largest windows I remember to have seen in a similar situation.  They extend almost from the roof to the line of the old Norman basement.  Their magnitude is rendered still more remarkable by their being arranged in pairs, each separate pair inclosed within a pointed arch, and its windows parted only by a clustered pillar.  The very lofty arches that support the central tower, are likewise pointed; as are those of the transepts, the choir, the side-aisles, and the chapels.  In short, excepting the arches immediately beneath the northern and southern towers, which are most probably relics of Odo’s cathedral, the part of the nave, which I first described, is all that is left above-ground of the semi-circular style; and this is of a very different character from whatever else I have seen of Norman architecture.  The circular ornaments inserted in the spandrils of the arches of the choir, possess, as a friend of mine observes, somewhat of the Moorish, or, perhaps, Tartarian character; being nearly in the style of the ornaments which are found in the same situation in the Mogul mosques and tombs, though here they have much more flow and harmony in the curves.  Some are merely in bas-relief:  in others the central circles are deeply perforated, whilst the ribs are composed of delicate tracery.—­There are so many peculiarities both in the arrangement and in the details of this cathedral[91], that it is quite impossible to convey an adequate idea of them by a verbal description; and I can only hope that they will be hereafter made familiar to the English antiquarian by the pencil of Mr. Cotman or Mr. Stothard.

[Illustration:  Ornaments in the Spandrils of the Arches in Bayeux Cathedral]

The screen that separates the nave from the choir is Grecian, and is as much at variance with the inside of such a church, as the cupola, which is nearly over it, is with the exterior.—­Upon the roof of the choir, are still to be seen the portraits of the first twenty-one bishops of Bayeux, each with his name inscribed by his side.  The execution of the portraits is very rude, particularly that of the twelve earliest, whose busts are represented.  The artist has contented himself with exhibiting the heads only, of the remaining nine.  Common tradition refers the whole of these portraits to the time of Odo; but it is hardly necessary to observe, that the groined and pointed vaulting is subsequent to his date.—­Bayeux cathedral abounded in works of this description of art:  the walls of the