In our walks through Exeter it may be well to remember that Quivil’s architect determined to see what he could do with lowness and breadth. “Everything should be broad and low, outside as well as inside. Look at the east end of the choir--its two arches broad and low; above it the great window--broad and low. Nowhere but at Exeter do you find these squat windows with their truncated jambs; here they are everywhere--in the aisles, in the clerestory, in choir, chapels, transepts and nave; even in the great window of the western front: broad and low windows everywhere. Still more original is the external realisation of the design; central tower and spire, western towers and spires, alike are absent. Long and low, massive and stable stretches out uninterruptedly the long horizontal line of nave and choir. Breadth gives in itself the satisfactory feeling of massiveness, steadfastness and solidity; and this is just what is wanting in the all-too aërial work of Salisbury and Beauvais; vaulted roofs at a dizzy height resting on unsubstantial supports and sheets of glass. But the Exeter architect has emphasised this satisfactory feeling of stability still further. The window tracery is heavy and strong; the vault is barred all over with massive ribs; in the piers there are no pretty, fragile, detached shafts; the massive clustered columns look as if they were designed, as they were, to carry the weight of a Norman wall.”--(F. B.) The heaviness was counteracted by transparency: the arrangement of the windows flood the Cathedral with light; for the aisle and clerestory are almost a continuous sheet of glass. “Another distinctive feature in Exeter as in Salisbury, is that the architect produces his effect mainly by architectural means--is not driven to rely on sculpture. All the principal capitals have mouldings not foliage. Only in the great corbels of the vaulting shafts and in the bosses of the vault does he permit himself foliage and sculpture. Wonderful carving it is; the finest work of the best period, when the naturalistic treatment of foliage was fresh and young. Very remarkable these corbels are, with their life-like treatment of vine and grape, oak and acorn, hazel leaf and nut. Unfortunately the corbels, and still more the bosses, are so high up that their lovely detail is thrown away; and they are out of scale.