The cathedral of Noyon is an earlier example, and one of the best and most elegant transition specimens in France, having been commenced about the year 1137, and completed, as we now see it, in 1167. Here the circular arch had not entirely disappeared, which was owing to its early date, and to its situation near the German border, and its connection with the see of Tournay, with which it was long united. Like the sister church of that place, it was triapsal, which gave it great elegance of arrangement. The one defect of this form seems to be, that it does not lend itself easily to the combination of towers which were then so much in vogue. In singular contrast to this is the neighbouring cathedral of Laon, one of the very few in France which have no chevet. It terminates with a square east end, like an English church, except that it has there a great circular window only, instead of the immense wall of glass usually adopted in this country. In style it more resembles the cathedral of Paris than any other, though covering less ground and smaller in all its features. Its great glory is its crowning group of towers. The two western (with the exception of their spires) and the two at the end of the northern transept are complete. On the southern side only one has been carried to its full height, and the central lantern is now crowned by a low pyramidal roof instead of the tall spire that must once have adorned it; but even as they now are, the six that remain, whether seen from the immediate neighbourhood of the building or from the plain below—for it stands most nobly on the flat top of a high isolated hill— have a highly picturesque and pleasing effect, and notwithstanding the rudeness of some of its details, and its deficiency in sculpture, it is in many respects one of the most interesting of the cathedrals of France. [Illustration: 634. View of Cathedral at Coutances. (From ‘Transactions of Institute of British Architects.’)] One of the earliest of the complete pointed Gothic churches of France is that of Coutances (Woodcut No. 634), the whole of which belongs to the first half of the 13th century, and though poor in sculpture, makes up for this to some extent by the elegance of its architectural details, which are unrivalled or nearly so in France. Externally it possesses two western spires, and one octagonal lantern over the intersection of the nave and transept, which, both for beauty of detail and appropriateness, is the best specimen of its class, and only wants the crowning spire to make this group of towers equal to anything on this side of the channel.