The style is that of the fourteenth century, commonly known as "Decorated " or Geometric Gothic, and the material of both the internal and the external surfaces, excepting the base-course, is entirely of white marble. The western front consists of twin-towers surmounted with spires' which rise to the height of 330 feet, and of a central portion ter-: minated above by the gable of the nave. There are three deep portals, the centre and largest surmounted by a grand wheel-headed window. The octagonal spires are of open tracery. Between them and the square base of the towers is interposed an octagonal lantern, 54 feet high, with a traceried window on each side. The spaces between the buttresses of nave and choir are utilized, as in the cathedrals of Flanders, for side chapels, above each of which is a three-light window with a traceried head. The clere-storev windows are larger and more elaborate than those below, and each is surmounted by a crocketed gable. Each transept front has in its centre a portal corresponding to that of the west front, and above this a six-light window 5S feet high. In elevation the body of this cathedral exceeds many ancient ones; the eaves of the clere-storey are 1o4 feet above the ground, and the height of the centre aisle is loS feet. The great feature of the interior is the superb clere-storey, to which the tri forium forms but an appendage. Many of the windows are filled with rich stained glass.
iEsthetically, the shortcomings of this fine edifice arise from (1) the absence of a central tower or lantern, (2) the great uniformity of design, and (3) the cold and colorless effect produced by the material. The latter effect is the one most felt by the spectator. Not even the presence of the stained glass of the windows can annihilate the cheerless appearance of so much white marble. The sanctuary might well have been character ized by greater richness of ornamentation and some change in the win dows, groining, etc., from the patterns of the nave. In the perspectives of both the exterior and the interior the central tower is missed by an eye accustomed to the grouping of such cathedrals as Canterbury and Lich field. But continental Europe gives the warrant for the insignificance or suppression of the central tower, and, however we may succeed in point ing out the way in which additional effect might have been gained, we cannot deny the beauty and the grace of the structure as it is.
Comparison with medimval cathedrals is scarcely fair, although the dimensions and the style of the building challenge it. The cathedrals of Cologne, Chartres, Amiens, and Canterbury were not the design of one man nor of one generation, nor were they built for a sect embracing but a portion of the population. They were the work of many heads and of many generations; for, though the offspring of the fervid piety of an entire people, not even this zeal sufficed to complete any one of them in a lifetime. It is not, therefore, with the great cathedrals, but with such parts of these cathedrals as were erected in a generation, or with smaller churches which were at once carried to completion, that St. Patrick's
should be compared, and in this comparison it will not suffer greatly. It is, in fact, a fine example of medievalism amid the bustle of the nine teenth century—an anachronism, it is true, but one which commends itself to a large class of the people.
Trinity church which in historical sequence deserves first mention after St. Paul's at Ncw York City, and the one which turned the tide of public favor toward Gothic as the correct style in church-architecture, is Trinity, the work of the elder Upjohn, an Eng lishman trained in the Gothic traditions of his country. It was erected in the fifth decade of the century, and is a good example of fifteenth century work. Its steeple, 2S4 feet high, was not many years ago es teemed a lofty one, but it now scarcely rises above the tall commercial structures which surround it, situated as it is in the heart of the bus iness-portion of the city. Mr. Upjohn executed several other churches, always in good taste, but without much effort after originality.
Among other of the smaller New York City chinches may be men tioned St. Thomas's (also by Upjohn)—the interior of which seems to have been suggested by Ely Cathedral—the collegiate Dutch Reformed Church, and Grace Church. The Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church has a most effective tower of rough-hewn stone, open on all sides, and with a projecting balcony beneath each of the open arches. Holy Trin ity, Brooklyn, by Lefevre, is a work of the fifth decade.
/111 Saints' Cathedral at Albany 3, 4) is a small structure compared with the medimval cathedrals, since its length is only 260 feet and the width across the transepts iio feet. It is designed somewhat in the style of the Gothic of the South of France and Spain, and is pecu liar for the great comparative width of the nave and the narrowness of the side-aisles. This departure from established custom, as well as others, is for the purpose of giving the worshippers an unobstructed view of the chancel and the preacher. The transepts have an aisle on the western side, and the choir two aisles for three bays of its length, the remaining two bays, forming the sanctuary, being without aisles. The nave, choir, _ and transepts have quadripartite stone vaults, while for acoustic reasons the central octagonal lantern has a wooden roof. The windows of the sides of the nave are without tracery, those of the transepts have but little, while those of the choir are rich, the entire arrangement leading np to the grand traceried windows of the square east end. There are an ambulatory round the sanctuary and a small cloister and chapter-house to the north-east of the Choir. The central tower is purposely subordinated to the two western ones. On account of the nature of the subsoil, the foundations of the outer walls are made to form practically a unit with those of the main pillars. There is a crypt beneath the whole of the main building.