repose of King's Parade.

[Illustration: IN THE CHOIR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. This Chapel and
that of Henry VII at Westminster and St. George's at Windsor, are the
finest examples of the gorgeous fan tracery belonging to the last
phase of English gothic architecture.]

Owing to the extreme uniformity of the exterior of the chapel the eye
seems to take in all there is to see in one sweeping vision, refusing
subconsciously to look individually at each of the twelve identical
bays, each with its vast window of regularly repeated design. But
there are some things it would be a pity to pass over, for to do so
would be to fail to appreciate the profound skill of the mediaeval
architects and craftsmen who could rear a marvellous stone roof upon
walls so largely composed of glass. In this building, like its only
two rivals in the world--St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle and
Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster--the wall space between the windows
has shrunk to the absolute minimum; in fact, nothing is left beyond
the bare width required for the buttresses, and to build those
reinforcements with sufficient strength to take the thrust of a
vaulted stone roof must have required consummate capacity and skill.
At Eton, where, however, the stone roof was never built, the
buttresses planned to carry it appear so enormous that the building
seems to be all buttress, but here such an impression could never for
a moment be gained, for the chapel filling each bay completely masks
the widest portion of the adjoining buttresses. The upper portions are
so admirably proportioned that they taper up to a comparatively slight
finial with the most perfect gradations.

Directly we enter the chapel our eyes are raised to look at the roof