Gothic architecture in France, England, and Italy . nd its splendid breadth of light and shade,together with the richness of the many-shafted piers andthe traceries and niches of the upper part will seem toplace the front of Peterborough high among the triumphsof Gothic architecture where it would stand in no needof apology. Ruskin somewhere says this facade would have beenalmost unrivalled had not the middle arch been narrowerthan the others. This criticism leaves out all considera-tion of the two flanking towers, and regards only thethree bays between them. But I like to regard thecompositio
Gothic architecture in France, England, and Italy . nd its splendid breadth of light and shade,together with the richness of the many-shafted piers andthe traceries and niches of the upper part will seem toplace the front of Peterborough high among the triumphsof Gothic architecture where it would stand in no needof apology. Ruskin somewhere says this facade would have beenalmost unrivalled had not the middle arch been narrowerthan the others. This criticism leaves out all considera-tion of the two flanking towers, and regards only thethree bays between them. But I like to regard thecomposition as one not of three but of five parts, ofwhich the three alternate bays are nearly equal, and aredivided by two that are wider, and this, I think, is howthe architect meant it to be considered. So regardedthe difference in width seems reasonable enough. In the rose or wheel windows of the gables, whichremind one of Patrixbourne, the detached paterae of the 1 Development and Character of Gothic Architecture, C. H. Moore, p. 231. 2 2*2. Plate LXIX. ~tmi**tii&* T. G. J. RIEVAULX ABBEY—The Choir ch. xin] EARLY ENGLISH 223 spandrils, and the billets that run up the pediments, we Peter- 1. r • y t\ borough may recognize a lingenngtrace of transitional Romanesque, cathedraland the same may be said of the two pinnacles that dividethe gables, and of the rounded pilasters that form theangles of the flanking turrets ; but in the shafted jambsand deeply undercut mouldings of the arch we see thenew style fairly launched into independence. Besides the native preference for a square east end Thein this country which was a matter of tradition from squire eastSaxon architecture, and from Celtic buildings earlier still, endanother influence helped to implant it as a nationalcharacteristic. The Cistercian rule spread widely in CistercianEngland during the 12th century; and following the for squareexample of the parent church at Citeaux, which had asquare east end1, all the great Cistercian
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