THE ABBEY CHURCH OF DOIICHESTER. 273 the other two grand compositions must heave lost much from their position ; thej were both intended to stand out inde- pendently as the terminations of distinct buildings, not to form mere component parts of a single extended front. Again, the great size and grandeur now assumed by the choir and its accessories must have tended to throw the nave into complete insignificance. We may also doubt whether the south choir aisle, standing distinct with a soaring high roof, could have been at all a satisfactory object. A similar arrangement on quite a small scale is pleasing and effective, as improving the picturesque outline ; but on the vast scale on which it was here presented, it could only have caused the exaggeration of a smaller type to have been even more strongly felt than at present. These two deficiencies then probably caused the additions which constitute the third period of Decorated work ; having suggested the prolongation of the choir to its present extent, and rendered still more imperative the addition connnenced some time before of an aisle to the south of the nave. I place these together, as they cannot be very far removed from each other in point of date, and are so manifestly remedies for the fiiults of the structure as completed by the preceding additions. But there is no particular resemblance in the work of the two, or any reason to believe that they formed in any sense parts of the same design. ]Iost probably one was the work of the convent, the other of the parish ; and in this w^e may perhaps find a key to the strange obstruction between the nave aisle and choir aisle. Forming, as they apparently did, altogether distinct chapels, one belonging to the conventual, the other to the parochial establishment, their independence and isolation may be a little better understood. A south aisle then was now^ added to the nave. The con- trast between its internal and external arrange- southAisie ments is very striking. I have just remarked its extreme isolation within from the choir aisle to the east of it. Outside, on the other hand, the two form one continuous range. The seam, indeed, wdiere the masonry of the two dates is united, is perceptible enough, and a more minute examination will show that the details of the two portions are by no means identical. They are, however, so w^ell harmonised together, that the first impression of every visitor would be that they
