The towers of Lincoln, simply as towers, are immeasurably finer than those
of York; but the front of York, as a front, far surpasses the front of
Lincoln.
As for the general outline, there can be no doubt as to the vast
superiority of Lincoln. Lincoln has sacrificed a great deal to the
enormous pitch of its roofs, but it has its reward in the distant view of
the outside. The outline of York is spoiled by the incongruity between the
low roofs of the nave and choir and the high roofs of the transepts. The
dumpiness of the central tower of York--which is, in truth, the original
Norman tower cased--can not be wholly made a matter of blame to the
original builders. For it is clear that some finish, whether a crown like
those at Newcastle and Edinburgh or any other, was intended. Still the
proportion which is solemn in Romanesque becomes squat in perpendicular,
and, if York has never received its last finish, Lincoln has lost the last
finish which it received. Surely no one who is not locally sworn to the
honor of York can doubt about preferring the noble central tower of
Lincoln, soaring still, even tho shorn of its spire. The eastern transept,
again, is far more skilfully managed at Lincoln than at York. It may well
be doubted whether such a transept is really an improvement; but if it is
to be there at all, it is certainly better to make it the bold and
important feature which it is at Lincoln, than to leave it, as it is at
York, half afraid, as it were, to proclaim its own existence.
Coming to the east end, we again find, as at the west, Lincoln throwing
away great advantages by a perverse piece of sham. The east window of
Lincoln is the very noblest specimen of the pure and bold tracery of its
own date. But it is crusht, as it were, by the huge gable window above
it--big enough to be the east window of a large church--and the aisles,
whose east windows are as good on their smaller scale as the great window,
are absurdly finished with sham gables, destroying the real and natural
outline of the whole composition. At York we have no gables at all; the
vast east window, with its many flimsy mullions, is wonderful rather than
beautiful; still the east end of York is real, and so far it surpasses
that of Lincoln.
On entering either of these noble churches, the great fault to be found is
the lack of apparent height. To some extent this is due to a cause common
to both. We are convinced that both churches are too long. The eastern
part of Lincoln--the angels' choir--is in itself one of the loveliest of
human works; the proportion of the side elevations and the beauty of the
details are both simply perfect. But its addition has spoiled the minster
as a whole. The vast length at one unbroken height gives to the eastern
view of the inside the effect of looking through a tube, and the
magnificent east window, when seen from the western part of the choir, is
utterly dwarfed. And the same arrangement is open to the further objection
that it does not fall in with the ecclestiastical arrangements of the
building....
In the nave of York, looking eastward or westward, it is hard indeed to
believe that we are in a church only a few feet lower than Westminster or
Saint Ouens. The height is utterly lost, partly through the enormous
width, partly through the low and crushing shape of the vaulting-arch. The
vault, it must be remembered, is an imitation of an imitation, a modern
copy of a wooden roof made to imitate stone. This imitation of stone
construction in wood runs through the greater part of the church; it comes
out specially in the transepts, where a not very successful attempt is
made to bring the gable windows within the vault--the very opposite to the
vast space lost in the roofs at Lincoln. Yet with all this, many noble
views may be got in York nave and transepts, provided only the beholder
takes care never to look due east or west. The western view is still
further injured by the treatment of the west window--in itself an
admirable piece of tracery--which fits into nothing, and seems cut through
the wall at an arbitrary point. But the nave elevation, taken bay by bay,
is admirable. Looking across out of the aisle--the true way to judge--the
real height at last comes out, and we are reminded of some of the most
stately minsters of France....
DURHAM [Footnote: From "English Note Books." By arrangement with, and by
permission of, the publishers of Hawthorne's works, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
Copyright, 1870 and 1898.]