however, the roof is only of wood. The Southwell towers are crowned with pyramidal roofs. The clerestory has a row of circular windows which are unique. Nowhere else can be found such treasures of the best work of the best periods. It was left undisturbed by Henry VIII. because it was a church of secular canons.

As it is a Victorian New Foundation, there were no bishops previous to 1884.

THE END.

IN EXPLANATION

IN the dark ages, the Guild of the Comacine Masters, of Como, in Italy, appears to have been a survival of a Roman college. This guild of qualified architects had associated with it many monks, who, as architects, builders, and skilled workmen, accompanied the missionaries on their journeys to foreign countries, undertaken for the purpose of converting the heathen to Christianity, and of as promptly as may be building churches for their occupancy.

In this way, and also as one effect of the sightseeing of the roaming crusaders, the same general style of architecture prevailed over all Europe at the same period, modified by the differing tastes of the different nations.

The Irish churches are older than the English, and the round towers which are such a puzzle to modern architects were probably built for church purposes by Comacine workmen imported by the earliest missionaries.