The Cathedrals of Northern France. By Francis Miltoun. Illustrated by
Blanche McManus. (T. Werner Laurie. 6s. net.) —By "Northern Prance" is meant, roughly speaking, that part of the country which lies north of a line drawn from the month of the Loire to the Swiss lakes. Here we have the Gothic or pointed styles; south of this line the Byzantine and Romanesque influences dominate the architecture. In this northern division the "Grand Group," as Mr. Miltoun designates it, includes eight Cathedrals,—i.e. (in alphabetical order), Amiens, Beauvais, Chartres, Le Mans, Paris, Reims, Rouen, St. Denis. Our author very properly declines to rank these, or, indeed, any great examples; he classifies them, but refuses to make an order of merit. It will be understood that as the compass of the volume is small no closely detailed description is attempted. We have an account in outline, a chart, so to speak, which the reader must fill in with details for himself. The illustrations will be found very helpful, as will the statistical information supplied in the appendices. France is now divided into eighty-three dioceses. Before the Revolution the number was a hundred and twenty- three. The churches of the forty suppressed Sees still rank as Cathedrals, as do others also where the throne was transferred at some earlier time. There are some seventy quasi-Cathedrals of this kind. In an appendix we have the dimensions and dates of some of the principal buildings. Amiens heads the list with a length of nave and choir of 469 ft., and width (including transepts) 214 ft., while its spire reaches 422 ft. It is surpassed, however, in superficial area by Bourges (70,000 to 73,170 square feet). The width of 1351 ft. does not vary from end to end. St. Peter's at Rome has an area of 122,400 square feet; St. Paul's, London, 58,500.
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