Ypres, Again, Like Arras,
Has Lent Its Name To Commerce, If Diaper Be Really Rightly Derived
From The Expression "Linen
Of Ypres." The Cloth Hall fronts on to
the Grande Place, and, indeed, forms virtually one side of it; and
Behind, in the Petite Place, is the former cathedral of St.
Martin. This is another fine building, though utterly eclipsed by
its huge secular rival, that was commenced in the thirteenth
century, and is typically Belgian, as opposed to French, in the
character of its architecture, and not least in its possession of
a single great west tower. This last feature is characteristic of
every big church in Belgium - one can add them up by the dozen:
Bruges, Ghent, Louvain (though ruined, or never completed),
Oudenarde, Malines, Mons - save Brussels, where the church of Ste.
Gudule, called persistently, but wrongly, the cathedral, has the
full complement of two, and Antwerp, where two were intended,
though only one has been actually raised. This tower at Ypres,
however, fails to illustrate - perhaps because it is earlier, and
therefore in better taste - that astounding disproportion in height
that is so frequently exhibited by Belgian towers, as at Malines,
or in the case of the famous belfry in the market-place at Bruges,
when considered with reference to the church, or town hall, below.
In front of the High Altar, in the pavement, is an inconspicuous
square of white stone, which marks the burial-place of Cornelius
Jansen, who died of the plague, as Bishop of Ypres, in 1638.
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