I haue given the appearance of arches as the Order required fair and lofty: but I haue layd the floor of the Library upon the impostes, which answar (_sic_) to the pillars in the cloister and the levells of the old floores, and haue filled the Arches with relieues of stone, of which I haue seen the effect abroad in good building, and I assure you where porches are lowe with flat ceelings is infinitely more gracefull then lowe arches would be and is much more open and pleasant, nor need the mason freare (_sic_) the performance because the Arch discharges the weight, and I shall direct him in a firme manner of executing the designe. [Illustration: Fig. 127. Elevation of one bay on the east side of the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, drawn to scale from the existing building.] By this contrivance the windowes of the Library rise high and giue place for the deskes against the walls, and being high may be afforded to be large, and being wide may haue stone mullions and the glasse pointed, which after all inventions is the only durable way in our Climate for a publique building, where care must be had that snowe driue not in.... The general design seems to have been borrowed from that of the Library of S. Mark at Venice, begun by Sansovino in 1536. The Italian architect, like Sir Christopher Wren, raised his library on a cloister, which is in the Doric style, while the superstructure is Ionic. The Venetian example is more ornate, and there are statues upon every pier of the balustrade. The arcades are left open, because there was not the same necessity for accommodating the level of the floor to that of older buildings, and also because the wall opposite to the windows had to be left blank on account of the proximity of other structures. No consideration for fittings such as influenced Wren could have influenced the Italian architect. The style of Wren's work will be understood from the elevation of a bay on the east side (fig. 127), drawn to scale from the existing building. If this be compared with the original design (fig. 126), it will be seen that the style there indicated has been closely followed. We will now consider the fittings. A long stretch of blank wall having been provided both along the sides and at the ends of the room, Wren proceeded to design a masterly combination of the old and new methods of arranging bookcases. As he says in another passage of the same memoir, when describing this part of his design: