The summer vault was now
its only roof, and all that remained of its gorgeous windows
was the vastness of their arched symmetry, and some wreathed
relics of their fantastic frame-work, but the rest was
uninjured.
From the west window, looking over the transept chapel of the
Virgin, still adorned with pillars of marble and alabaster,
the eye wandered down the nave to the great orient light, a
length of nearly three hundred feet, through a gorgeous avenue
of unshaken walls and columns that clustered to the skies, On
each side of the Lady's chapel rose a tower. One which was of
great antiquity, being of that style which is commonly called
Norman, short and very thick and square, did not mount much
above the height of the western front; but the other tower was
of a character very different, It was tall and light, and of a
Gothic style most pure and graceful; the stone of which it was
built, of a bright and even sparkling colour, and looking as
if it were hewn but yesterday. At first, its turretted crest
seemed injured; but the truth is, it was unfinished; the
workmen were busied on this very tower the day that old
Baldwin Greymount came as the king's commissioner to inquire
into the conduct of this religious house.
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