bay; they are closely grouped, and entirely fill the spaces between the piers. This is not a common form of opening in France, and it is not strictly in accordance with the Gothic system; for although the openings quite fill the spaces between the piers (the dividing members having scarcely more volume than mullions), they do not quite fill the space beneath the vault rib, since their solid tympanums necessarily occupy a good deal of it.
FIG. 52.
There is hardly a construction in France of more interest than this portion of St. Remi as showing how the Gothic style is but an evolution from the Romanesque. Externally the plain round apse, the projecting apsidal chapels, and the general quietness of effect are strikingly reminiscent of the old monastic style; while yet the bold flying buttresses and the large openings, nearly suppressing the walls, bespeak a structure on strictly Gothic principles. This apse is another striking illustration, too, of the fact that the development of Gothic construction was from within outward, the internal arrangements necessitating those of the exterior, and the exterior assuming the Gothic expression first, as here shown,
