tale attached to them, than from their positive beauty.  The tale, my friend, is briefly this.  These windows were finished (as well as the larger one at the west front) about the year 1439.  One of them was executed by the master-mason, the other by his apprentice; and on being criticised by competent judges, the performance of the latter was said to eclipse that of the former.  In consequence, the master became jealous and revengeful, and actually poniarded his apprentice.  He was of course tried, condemned, and executed; but an existing monument to his memory attests the humanity of the monks in giving him Christian interment.[54] On the whole, it is the absence of all obtrusive and unappropriate ornament which gives to the interior of this building that light, unencumbered, and faery-like effect which so peculiarly belongs to it, and which creates a sensation that I never remember to have felt within any other similar edifice.

Let me however put in a word for the Organ.  It is immense, and perhaps larger than that belonging to the Cathedral.  The tin pipes (like those of the organ in the Cathedral) are of their natural colour.  I paced the pavement beneath, and think that this organ cannot be short of forty English feet in length.  Indeed, in all the churches which I have yet seen, the organs strike me as being of magnificent dimensions.

You should be informed however that the extreme length of the interior, from the further end of the Chapel of the Virgin, to its opposite western extremity, is about four hundred and fifty English feet; while the height, from the pavement to the roof of the nave, or the choir, is one hundred and eight English feet.  The transepts are about one hundred and forty feet in length.  The central tower, upon the whole, is not only the grandest tower in Rouen, but there is nothing for its size in our own country that can compare with it.  It rises upwards of one hundred feet above the roof of the church; and is supported below, or rather within, by four magnificent cluster-pillared bases, each about thirty-two feet in circumference.  Its area, at bottom, can hardly be less than thirty-six feet square.  The choir is flanked by flying buttresses, which have a double tier of small arches, altogether “marvellous and curious to behold.”

I could not resist stealing quietly round to the porch of the south transept, and witnessing, in that porch, one of the most chaste, light, and lovely specimens of Gothic architecture, which can be contemplated.  Indeed, I hardly know any thing like it.[55] The leaves of the poplar and ash were beginning to mantle the exterior; and, seen through their green and gay lattice work, the traceries of the porch seemed to assume a more interesting aspect.  They are now mending the upper part of the facade with new stone of peculiar excellence—­but it does not harmonise with the old work.  They merit our thanks, however, for the preservation of what remains of this precious pile.  I should remark to you that the eastern and north-eastern sides of the abbey of St. Ouen are surrounded with promenades and trees:  so that, occasionally, either when walking, or sitting upon the benches, within these gardens, you catch one of the finest views imaginable of the abbey.