No doubt the designer saw the fault; he placed
an acute ornamental gable above the window, rising to the top of the
front, and he covered the actual gable of the roof with flamboyant
tracery of the same character as that on the window; but, by so doing,
he merely weakened the contrast between tracery and bare spaces of
masonry so necessary to every great design.
The weakness of the central division is not made up for by any
excellence in the towers. These, though fine on their lower storeys, are
strangely feeble above. They are, in fact, the worst part of the
minster, and have been condemned by all critics, from Mr Ruskin
downwards. In most towers of this kind there are two windows above and a
single one below. At York the three storeys of single windows give the
design an air of monotony and weakness. Further, the highest window is
not only far too large, but is placed too low. Like the great west
window, it appears to have been cut out of the wall. It is also
peculiarly unfortunate that the buttresses should die into the wall
below the pinnacles. Where a tower is buttressed, it is a natural and
logical device to make the pinnacles a continuation of the buttresses.
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