those styles of the Southern provinces of France which we have been describing. The churches of Auvergne are those which perhaps show the nearest approach to them. [Illustration: Fig. 1. Original Eastern Termination.] [Illustration: Fig. 2. 612. Plan of the Church of St. Stephen, Caen. (From Ramée, ‘Histoire de l’Architecture.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. ] On the whole it appears most probable that the western fronts of the Norman churches were taken from the façades of Germany, and the towers added to give dignity to them. As will be seen from the view (Woodcut No. 613), in St. Stephen’s at Caen the feature is well marked and defined; for though the spires were apparently added at the same time as the chevet, the towers which support them evidently belong to the original design. They may be regarded as the prototype of the façades of nearly all the Gothic cathedrals of France. These western towers eventually superseded the attempt made to raise the principal external feature of the churches on the intersection of the nave with the transepts as had been done in the South, and they made the western front the most important part, not only in decoration, but in actual height. Here and throughout the North of France, with the exception of the churches at Rouen, the central tower is low and comparatively insignificant, scarcely even aspiring to group with those of the western façade. INTERSECTING VAULTING. As there are few churches in France which illustrate so completely the difficulties of intersecting vaulting, and the struggle of the Mediæval architects to conquer them, as St. Stephen’s, Caen, it may add to the clearness of what follows if we pause in our narrative to explain what these were. [Illustration: 613. Western Façade of St. Stephen, Caen. (From Pugin and Britton’s ‘Normandy.’)]