Of about the same age (1522-1558) is St. Jacques at Liège (Woodcut No. 681), a church of the second class in point of size, being only 254 ft. in length internally, by 92 ft. across the nave. At the west end it still retains the screen of the old church, marked darker on the plan. The principal entrance is a splendid porch of flamboyant design on the north. The east end may be said to be a compromise between the French and German methods, for it is not a true chevet, inasmuch as it has not the circumscribing aisle, while its circlet of chapels prevents its being considered as a German apse. Altogether the plan is characteristic of its locality on the borders of France and Germany, for in it we find mixed together most of the peculiarities of both countries. For its age too the details are generally good, but as construction was no longer the ruling motive, confusion is the result. The most remarkable thing about the church is, that it is one of the very few churches in Europe which retain their polychromatic decorations in anything like completeness, especially on the roof. The paintings, however, are of late date, bordering on the cinque-cento period; yet the effect produced, though gorgeous, is remarkably pleasing and beautiful, and is in itself sufficient to set at rest the question as to the expediency of painting the vaults of churches, or leaving them plain. My own conviction is, that all French vaults were once painted to as great an extent as in this case. Our English architects often probably depended only on form and carving for effect, but on the Continent it was otherwise. Of the remaining churches, St. Bavon’s at Ghent, and St. Martin’s at Liège, both commenced, as they now stand, in the middle of the 16th century, are among the most remarkable, and for their age are wonderfully free from any traces of the Renaissance. At the same age in France, or even in England, they would have been Italianised to a far greater extent. There is scarcely a second-rate town or even a village in Belgium that does not possess a church of more or less importance of the Gothic age, or one at all events possessing some fragment or detail worthy of attentive study. This circumstance is easily explained from the fact that during the whole of the Mediæval period, from the 10th to the 16th century, Belgium was rich and prosperous, and since that time till the present comparatively so poor as to have had neither ambition to destroy nor power to rebuild. Considering its extent, the country is indubitably richer in monuments than France, or perhaps than any other country in Europe; but the architecture is neither so good or satisfactory nor of so high a class. CHAPTER II. CONTENTS. Civil Architecture—Belfries—Hall at Ypres—Louvain—Brussels—Domestic Architecture.