YORK AND LINCOLN COMPARED [Footnote: From "English Towns and Districts."]

BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN


The towers of Lincoln, simply as towers, are immeasurably finer than those
of York; but the front of York, as a front, far surpasses the front of
Lincoln.

As for the general outline, there can be no doubt as to the vast
superiority of Lincoln. Lincoln has sacrificed a great deal to the
enormous pitch of its roofs, but it has its reward in the distant view of
the outside. The outline of York is spoiled by the incongruity between the
low roofs of the nave and choir and the high roofs of the transepts. The
dumpiness of the central tower of York--which is, in truth, the original
Norman tower cased--can not be wholly made a matter of blame to the
original builders. For it is clear that some finish, whether a crown like
those at Newcastle and Edinburgh or any other, was intended. Still the
proportion which is solemn in Romanesque becomes squat in perpendicular,
and, if York has never received its last finish, Lincoln has lost the last
finish which it received. Surely no one who is not locally sworn to the
honor of York can doubt about preferring the noble central tower of
Lincoln, soaring still, even tho shorn of its spire. The eastern transept,
again, is far more skilfully managed at Lincoln than at York. It may well
be doubted whether such a transept is really an improvement; but if it is
to be there at all, it is certainly better to make it the bold and
important feature which it is at Lincoln, than to leave it, as it is at