"The Cathedral is grand and impressive from its very size, but the effect of the front is greatly injured by its incongruous style of architecture." B Taylor #QotD

"The Cathedral is grand and impressive from its very size, but the effect of the front is greatly injured by its incongruous style of architecture. There seems to have been no single design adopted, but after half had been built, the architect changed his plan and finished the remainder in a different style. The front, as high as the Cathedral roof, has a venerable appearance of age and neglect, while the two massive square, unadorned towers rising from it, are as brilliantly white and fresh as if erected yesterday. The front of the church adjoining is embosomed with very elaborate ornaments of sculpture, all showing the same disregard
of architectural unity."

Bayard Taylor, El Dorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (2 vols, New York, 1850), p. 298

Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author. He published a couple of books on Egypt which is where I'd first heard of him when writing my book on Egyptian travel accounts, Nile Notes of a Howadji (1992).