Fig. 373.—Chapter-house, York.
The relation between the vaulting of the Chapter-houses of York and Westminster is, in fact, the same as that between the two chapels at Lincoln just described. In each case we see how similar forms may be covered over with vaulting nearly identical in plan—with or without a central pillar at pleasure.
There is a parallel case in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral, in which the compartment is divided on three of its sides into two, and on the other into three arches.
This crypt is a work in which the architect would appear to have revelled in self-sought perplexities, and to have solved them, one after another, with singular success.
Fig. 374.—Glasgow Cathedral. Plan of vaulting of the Crypt under the Choir.
The portion of the crypt which represents the choir overhead is really one of the most lively and amusing pieces of vaulting I know ([Fig. 374]). It consists of ten bays; and, as the east end is necessarily divided into two bays for the support of those above, nothing would have been more natural than to have placed an intermediate row of columns down the centre, dividing the whole into two ordinary ranges of vaulting. But no, the architect would have lost his fun by any such commonplace scheme, and we should have lost a very pretty and instructive puzzle.