Altogether this ascent, which is on a plan unknown elsewhere, is pronounced to be the noblest example of a flight of stairs to be found in any part of the world.

It does not project beyond the line of the platform whereto it leads, but is, as it were, taken out of it.

[PLATE XLII.] [[Illustration: PLATE XLII.] The next, and in some respects the most remarkable of all the staircases, conducts from the level of the northern platform to that of the central or upper terrace.

This staircase fronts northward, and opens on the view as soon as the first staircase (A on the plan) has been ascended, lying to the right of the spectator at the distance of about fifty or sixty yards.

It consists of four single flights of steps, two of which are central, facing one another, and leading to a projecting landing-place (B), about twenty feet in width; while the two others are on either side of the central flights, distant from them about twenty-one yards.