The transepts at Chartres have more projection than those of Paris, and were originally designed with two towers to each, and two others were placed one on each side of the choir; so that the cathedral would have had eight towers altogether if completed; but none except the western two have been carried higher than the springing of the roof; and though they serve to vary the outline, they do not relieve, to the extent they might have done, the heavy massiveness of the roof. In other respects the external beauty of the cathedral is somewhat injured by the extreme heaviness of the flying buttresses, which were deemed necessary to resist the thrust of the enormous vault of the central nave; and, though each is in itself a massive and beautiful object, they crowd the clerestory to an inconvenient extent; the effect of which is also somewhat injured by the imperfect tracery of the windows, each of which more resembles separate openings grouped together than one grand and simple window. [Illustration: 628. Buttress at Chartres. (From Batissier, ‘Histoire de l’Art.’)] [Illustration: 629. Buttresses at Rheims. (From Chapuy.)] The progress that took place between this building and that at Rheims is more remarkable on the exterior than even in the interior. The façade of that church, though small as compared with some others, was perhaps the most beautiful structure produced during the Middle Ages; and, though it is difficult to institute a rigorous comparison between things so dissimilar, there is perhaps no façade either of ancient or of modern times, that surpasses it in beauty of proportion and details, or in fitness for the purpose for which it was designed. Nothing can exceed the majesty of its deeply-recessed triple portals, the beauty of the rose-window that surmounts them, or the elegance of the gallery that completes the façade and serves as a basement to the light and graceful towers that crown the composition. These were designed to carry spires, no doubt as elegant and appropriate as themselves; but this part of the design was never completed. The beautiful range of buttresses which adorn the flanks of the building are also perhaps the most beautiful in France, and carry the design of the façade back to the transepts. These are late and less ornate than the western front, but are still singularly beautiful, though wanting the two towers designed to complete them. On the intersection of the nave with the transepts there rose at one time a spire of wood, probably as high as the intended spires of the western towers, and one still crowns the ridge of the chevet, rising to half the height above the roof that the central one was intended to attain. Were these all complete, we should have the beau ideal externally of a French cathedral, with one central and two western spires, and four towers at the ends of the transepts. All these perhaps never were fully completed in any instance, though the rudiments of the