The easterly termination is decidedly unusual, even unto peculiarity. It is not, after the English manner, of the squared east-end variety, nor yet does it possess an apse of conventional form, but rather is a combination of the two widely differing styles, with considerably more than a suggested apse when viewed from the interior, and merely a flat bare wall when seen from the outside. In addition three diminutive separate apses are attached thereto, and present in the completed arrangement a variation or species which is distinctly local. The present edifice dates from 1162, its construction being largely due to the Countess Eleanor, queen to the young Earl Henry. The high altar was dedicated in 1199, but the choir itself was not finished until a half-century later. There is no triforium or clerestory, and, but for the aisles, the cathedral would approximate the dimensions and interior outlines of that great chambered church at Albi; as it is, it comes well within the classification called by the Germans _hallenkirche_. Professor Freeman has said that a church that has aisles can hardly be called a typical Angevin church; but St. Pierre de Poitiers is distinctly Angevin in spite of the loftiness of its walls and pillars. The west front is the most elaborate constructive element and is an addition of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with flanking towers of the same period which stand well forward and to one side, as at Rouen, and at Wells, in England. The western doorway is decorated with sculptures of the fifteenth century, in a manner which somewhat suggests the work of the northern builders; who, says Fergusson, "were aiding the bishops of the southern dioceses to emulate in some degree the ambitious works of the Isle of France." The ground-plan of this cathedral is curious, and shows, in its interior arrangements, a narrowing or drawing in of parts toward the east. This is caused mostly by the decreasing effect of height between the nave and choir, and the fact that the attenuated transepts are hardly more than suggestions--occupying but the width of one bay. The nave of eight bays and the aisles are of nearly equal height, which again tends to produce an effect of length. There is painted glass of the thirteenth century in small quantity, and a much larger amount of an eighteenth-century product, which shows--as always--the decadence of the art. Of this glass, that of the _rosace_ at the westerly end is perhaps the best, judging from the minute portions which can be seen peeping out from behind the organ-case.