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3
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The Cambridge Manuals of Science and
Literature
ANCIENT STAINED AND PAINTED
GLASS
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Honiroii: fetter lane, e.g.
C. F. CLAY, Manager
^<P
emntucfflj: loo, PRINCES STREET
IBetlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
leip>ifl: F. A. BROCKHAUS
i^eto liorfc : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombas ant Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO. Ltd.
All rights reserved
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Our Lady and the Divine Child (Harlow)
le
ANCIENT STAINED
AND PAINTED
GLASS
.>'
BY
F. SYDNEY EDEN
Cambridge :
at the University Pres;
New York:
G P. Piitfiam's Sons
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CambriHgr :
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
With the exception of the coat of arms at
the foot, the design on the title page is a
reproduction of one used by the earliest knotvn
Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 152 1
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PREFACE
THESE pages make no pretence to give an ex-
haustive account of their subject, but only to
supply sufficient data to ground an intelligent appre-
ciation of such remains of stained and painted glass
older than 1700 as are still to be found in ancient
buildings.
In the introductory chapter I have shortly de-
scribed the matter with which we have to deal —
in particular, its fragmentary condition and the
historical causes which have produced that condition.
Also, I touch upon the subject of the connection
between glass-painting and the other arts ancillary
to architecture with special reference to their common
objects and use.
The styles, which may be taken, roughly, to
synchronize with those into which English archi-
tecture from the 11th century onwards is usually
divided, are then briefly described, and I have, in
the concluding chapter, ventured to say a few words
upon latter-day treatment of old glass, and to make
some suggestions which may, I hope, be found helpful
25732GL °'^' ""' by Google
viii PREFACE
towards, not only the preservation, but also a reason-
able use, of what is left
Several of the illustrations are taken from the
county of Essex, which is generally supposed to be
below the average in remains of old painted glass,
and I may add that it would not be difficult to
illustrate all the styles in painted glass by fine speci-
mens from Essex alone. This fe^t affords reasonable
justification for the inference that there is, in every
county in England, an open book about old painted
glass which only needs a little editing — ix. copying
and arranging the copies in some feirly accessible
place — to make it of the greatest possible value to
students and craftsmen, and to the public at large.
F. s! E.
Walthamstow, Essex,
Christmas, 1912.
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CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. Introductory 1
II. XORMAN AND BaRLY ENGLISH STYLES (1050—1272) 25
III. The Decorated Style (1272—1377) ... 49
IV. The Perpendicular Style (1377—1547) . ' 72
V. Renaissance (1547—1603) 102
VI. The Seventeenth Century and After .115
VII. Heraldry in Glass 130
VIII. Last Words 145
Aids to Further Study 152
Index 155
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Our Lady and the Divine Child. Harlow
Frontispiece
Fragment of border and quarry. Roydon
The Ascension. Le Mans ....
Martyrdom of St Gervasius. Le Mans
Our Lady enthroned. Le Mans
The Money-changers. Le Mans
Figure and canopy (fragment). Wilton
White window. Westwell ....
Trellis window. Merton College, Oxford .
St Eldward, K. and 0. Stapleford Abbots
St Edmund, Bp. and C. Abbess Roding
Head of our Lady. Kingsdown
Perpendicular quarries ....
Symbol of St Mark. Netteswell
Louis II of Anjou. Le Mans
Arms of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. Ockholt
Our Lady visiting St Elizabeth. Great Ilford
Joab slaying Amasa. Great Ilford ....
Arms of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Great Pamdon
Arms of Wollaye. Latton ....
The adoration of the Shepherds. Lambourne (from Baden)
Arms of France (ancient). Selling ....
Punning device on quarry
Arms of Norreys and Beaufort. Ockholt .
Arms of Sir John Gresham. (Jreat Ilford
Merchant's mark of Sir John Gresham. Great Ilford
Gresham badge. Great Ilfonl
PAGE
3
29
37
38
39
43
46
53
57
65
67
74,75
83
89
95
106
107
117
119
125
133
137
139
141
142
144
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi
Note. — The Le Mans examples are from Hucher's Book on Le
Mans Cathedral, those at Wilton, Westwell, Merton College,
Kingsdown and Selling are from Winston's Styles in Ancient
Glctss Painting^ the arms at Ockholt are from Lysons' Magna
Britannia — Berkshire^ and the remainder are from drawings by
the writer, some of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
South Kensington.
Thanks are due to the Catholic Publishing Co., Ltd. and to the
Editor of The Catholic Fireside for the loan of blocks of some of
the illustrations.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
The initial diflSculty in the way of acquiring
a correct notion of the value and use of stained
and painted glass is the fact that the old coloured
windows — our only trustworthy guides — have come
down to our time in so fragmentary a state. Take,
with one or two exceptions, any old parish church in
England : very seldom is all the old glass left, even
in a single window. Here is a figure of a saint, there
the symbol of an evangelist ; in one window is a
mutilated border and, in another, are a few quarries
with designs of leafage, small animals or birds, or
monograms.
As illustrative of this state of things with regard
to parish churches, we may mention the 13th century
glass in the south chancel window at Chetwode
church, Bucks. ; the medallion representing Henry H's
penance for his part in the murder of St Thomas of
Canterbury, formerly at RoUright church, Oxfordshire,
and now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford ; the history
E. 1
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2 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch. i
of St Laurence in fifty panels in the east window of
Ludlow church ; the Jesse window in the Cordwainers*
chapel and the pilgrims receiving St Edward's ring
from St John in the Fletchers* chapel, both in the
same church, and the very fragmentary glass — ^a
few loose pieces only — at Knowle church, Warwick-
shire.
The case of Knowle deserves attention, for it is
an excellent illustration of the extent to which, since
the 17th century, ancient glass has disappeared from
our churches. When Sir William Dugdale, herald
and antiquary, visited this church in 1640, he found
three, painted windows which had been set up by
Thomas Dabridgecourt, Sir William Wigston and one
Aylesbury, also, in the tracery, seven shields of arms
borne by angels. By 1793 all that was left of the
windows was a fragment of an inscription — ^these
words only, "p bono statu orate" — ^and a few frag-
ments of saints and kneeling figures, while, of the
heraldry, there remained only two shields. To-day
we shall look in vain in the windows of Knowle
church (which was restored in 1860) for the smallest
fragment of this old glass, although it is true that
a few scraps of it are kept in a box at the church.
To these we may add Shrewsbury church with its
great 14th century Jesse window and the splendid Per-
pendicular church at Cirencester, where, in St John's
chapel, is some 15th century glass.
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Fragment of border and quarry (Roydon)
1—2
4 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
In the remains of conventual churches we can
hardly expect much old glass, for they were, for the
most part, dismantled of their furniture and fittings
at the Dissolution of the Religious Houses. Such of
them, however, as still possess old glass tell the same
tale as the parish churches. At the Benedictine
Abbey church. Great Malvern, there is some 15th
century glass in the aisles representing the life of
Our Lord, the acts of St Wulstan of Worcester and
figures of the four great Doctors of the Church and
also those of Prince Arthur and Sir Reginald Bray.
In St Anne's chapel there, also, we may see a picture
of the Last Judgment and one of the Creation, while
at Little Malvern Priory church, there is some glass
of Edward IV's time in the east window. The Cis-
tercian Abbey church of Merevale in Warwickshire
can boast only a few fragments. In the magnificent
nave — almost all that is left — of the mitred Abbey of
Waltham Holy Cross, Essex, not a scrap of the old
windows is left, though, perhaps, we ought to claim
the well-known perpendicular glass in the east window
at St Margaret's, Westminster, as belonging to Wal-
tham Abbey, for it was there, by gift of Henry VIII,
or possibly, Henry VII, for a few years.
From Westminster Abbey the ancient glass has
all but disappeared. The clerestory windows of
Henry VII's chapel, the glass in which set the pattern
for that in King's College chapel, Cambridge, now
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it] INTRODUCTORY 5
contain only some fragments which were formerly in
the Lady chapel ; in the west windows of the aisles
are other remains and, in the Jerusalem Chamber,
are fragments of early 13th century glass.
At Tewkesbury a little 14th century glass is left,
and, at Dunster Priory church in Somersetshire,
there are, among other fragments, a pilgrim's hat
with escallop-shells, and a crown, all that are left of
a head of St James of Compostella and the figure of
la king, which were complete in 1808. There is, also,
( at Dunster a quarry decorated with a pastoral staff
^and a scroll bearing the words, "W. Donesteere
r Abbas de Cliva," a reference to William Seylake,
I Abbot of Cleeve in 1420.
I In the 18th century the glass of the great east
window — a tree of Jesse— was still in situ, but by
I 1808 only a few fragments of it were left In 1808,
_ too, the arms of Luttrell were in a window of the
I north aisle of Dunster church, but they are no longer
there.
In the college chapels at Oxford and at Cambridge,
the loss and destruction of old glass have been,
perhaps, as considerable as in the parish churches.
At Oxford, the I7th century windows of University
College chapel, painted by Abraham van Linge,
shortly before the Civil War, have survived, and at
Balliol, there are, in the side windows of the chapel,
fragments of 16th century glass from the old chapel
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6 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [Oh.
which was destroyed in 1856, while other pieces —
arms of benefactors — of 14th century date, are in the
windows of the lower Library. Here, in some cases,
while the shields of arms have been preserved, the
inscriptions under them have been destroyed, highly
illustrative of the carelessness with which painted
glass was formerly treated. Merton, in the side
windows of its chapel, can shew the oldest glass in
Oxford, that given, in 1283, by Henry de Maunsfield,
who subsequently became Chancellor of the Uni-
versity.
In the Library of the same college is some old
glass which bears testimony, in the "Agnus Dei"
(the Holy Lamb), often repeated, to the former dedi-
cation to St John the Baptist
In the chapel at Queen's College there is some
early 16th century glass, which, with the exception of
that in the two western windows on each side, was
restored and repainted by the younger Van linge in
the 17th century and again much restored by one
of the Prices in 1717. William of Wykeham's New
College retains its original 14th century windows in
the ante-chapel, except in the west window, where is
the well-known painting of the Nativity by Thomas
Jervais, from Sir Joshua Reynolds's cartoons.
The windows in the chapel proper at New College
contain good 17th century Flemish glass, though
those on the south side were largely repaired and
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I] INTRODUCTORY 7
repainted by William Price in mid-eighteenth century.
Lincoln College chapel, consecrated in 1631, contains
foreign glass of the 16th century, while the chapel of
All Souls has much of the original 15th century
glazing left, amongst which are portraits of John of
Gaunt, Archbishop Chichele the Founder, and of
Henry V and Henry VI.
Magdalen College, in the ante-chapel, has some
17th century glass and, at the west end, is a large
window, the Last Jvdgment^ of the same period, which
was, to a great extent, repainted in 1794. In Trinity
College chapel there is no old glass, but in the
Library is a figure of St Thomas of Canterbury and
other fragments.
If we add to this list the windows in the chapel at
Wadham College, we shall have a fairly accurate
idea of the old glass in Oxford Colleges which has
survived the ill-treatment to which painted glass has
been subjected from the end of the reign of Henry VIII
to, almost, the present day. The Wadham chapel
windows are contemporary with the foundation of
the college (1613) and were all painted by the Flemish
artist. Van Linge the elder.
At Cambridge, the condition of the old picture-
windows is, on the whole, much the same, although
there, in King's College chapel, we find an instance
of the whole of the ancient glass having been pre-
served to the present day. In the chapel at King's
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8 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH.
the twenty-four side windows and the east window
are filled with glass made and set up in the reign of
Henry VIII, which is designed to shew forth pictorially
the Christian scheme of religion — " the story of the
old lawe and of the new lawe," as it is expressed in
the contract for the making of the windows — in much
the same way as the windows at Fairford church to
which we shall presently come. There is, however,
a variation in treatment ; for, whereas, at Fairford
the tale of our Lord's earthly life and of the events
which led up to it are grouped together in the
eastern half of the church and the history of His
Church is in the western part, at King's College
chapel there is no such sharp division. In other
respects, however, the scheme is the same at King's
as at Fairford : in particular, the east and west
windows at both have similar subjects, though it
should be noted that the glass in the west window at
King's is not ancient, having been given in 1879 by
a former Fellow of the College. In the side-chapels
of King's College chapel are also, besides more 16th
century glass, some figures — Apostles and Prophets,
King David and Bishops — of early 15th century date
brought from elsewhere ; perhaps, Ramsey Abbey
after its dissolution.
In the chapel (built 1632) at Peterhouse, where,
it is on record, the Puritan visitors defaced six angels
which they found in the windows — the east window
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I] INTRODUCTORY 9
is 17th century work, a Crucijiooion, mainly copied
from Rubens' picture of the same subject at Antwerp.
At Trinity College, in one of the oriel windows of the
Hall is a 15th century figure of Richard, Duke of
Gloucester (afterwards Richard III) and there is
much 17th century, and later, collegiate heraldry in
the other windows.
If we turn to the Cathedrals — taking a few of
them only — they tell, for the most part, the same
story of destruction and neglect At Canterbury, of
all the painted glass with which every window was
filled, we see to-day only, in the great west window,
fragments from other pai*ts of the cathedral, among
them the arms of Richard II ; in the end wall of the
north transept pictures of Edward IV and his Queen,
their daughters, the two Princes murdered in the
Tower of London, and a headless figure of St Thomas
which was broken by Richard Culmer — " Blue Dick,"
the Canterbury fanatic — ^in Commonwealth days. In
the south transept is some glass of the Perpendicular
period, and, in the north choir aisle, between the
transepts, is ancient glass, probably set up shortly
after 1220. This last-mentioned glass and that of
about the same date, in the windows of the Trinity
chapel and the Corona, which represent the miracles
of St Thomas of Canterbury, are the most interesting
in the cathedral. In the north-eastern transept, also,
are fragments from the windows of the north choir aisle.
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10 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
Of all the English cathedrals York has fared the
best with regard to preservation of its old glass.
Every window in the nave and aisles, except four,
retains its ancient glazing. The earliest in point of
date is that of the first half of the 13th century in
the windows of the north clerestory. The famous
"five sisters" window in the main north transept
has preserved its original early English glazing. The
glass in the aisle- windows ranges from early 14th
century to the reign of Henry VI, and one window
of the choir — the easternmost on the south side —
contains 16th century glass brought from the church
of St Nicholas at Rouen. The perpendicular ghiss
of the great east window representing stories from
the Old Testament and of the Last Judgment with
figures of the Heavenly Hierarchy and of the Saints,
is the original glazing, as is, also, that of the 14th
century in the west window of the nave.
At Rochester all the ancient glass disappeared
during the religious changes of the 16th century, at
St Albans is a little 14th century heraldry of great
interest and Chichester cannot shew even fragments
of the old window-glazing. Winchester retains more,
though none of the earliest period. In the west nave
window is about the oldest glass in the cathedral,
perhaps of the time of Bishop Edingdon (1346 — 1366)
who built the west end. In its present state, how-
ever, this glass is very fragmentary, and is, no doubt.
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I] INTRODUCrrORY 11
made up of remains of several windows. In the
aisles and clerestories we find late perpendicular
glass, and the glazing of the east window of the
choir, except the three figures in the top tier, which
are modern, may be dated about 1525. An interesting
feature of this window are five shields shewing Bishop
Fox's arms, impaling those of the Sees which he
successively held — Exeter, Bath, Wells, Durham
and Winchester — ^and his motto, Est Deo gratia. In
the Lady chapel, also, are remains of old glass con-
temporary with their perpendicular settings.
It is commonly alleged, as the reason for the
poverty of Salisbury cathedral in the matter of old
glass, that the architect Wyatt, who worked his will
on the old church from 1782 to 1791, broke down an
enormous quantity of the ancient window-glazing and
threw it by cart-loads into the city ditch. Probably
he did, and it is, no doubt, also true, as is usually said,
that Bishop Jewell, in Elizabethan days, removed much
of the old glasa It may, nevertheless, be doubted
whether these iconoclasts acted very differently from
other men of their respective times, though they may
have been rather more thorough in their methods
than others, and, after all, there are ancient cathe-
drals and many other great churches with which
Wyatt had nothing to do, with even slighter remains
of old painted glass than Salisbury. A few scraps,
however, were left, for, in 1830, the three west
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12 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
windows of the nave and aisles were filled with
fragments of various dates from all parts of the
cathedral — a proceeding almost as reprehensible as
Wyatt's doings. In the great west window are some
Early English medallions and fragments of a Jesse
window of the first half of the 13th century, of a
Crucifixion and some perpendicular and renaissance
glass said to have been brought from Rouen. At the
bottom of the three lights is a row of shields bearing
the arms of England, France, Provence, the Earl of
Cornwall, Clare and Bigod. In the west windows of
the aisle are remains of 13th century borders and
other patterns and, curiously enough, in the head of
the south aisle west window, are the arms (dated
1562) of Bishop Jewell, to whom the destruction of
so much of the old glass at Salisbury is attributed.
In the upper lights of the east window of the south
transept is some Early English glass.
At Oxford cathedral, in the Latin chapel, are
three complete 14th century windows, and there is
an interesting piece of work in the window at the
west end of the north aisle of the nave painted by
the younger Van Linge — Jonah and his gourd. In
the south choir aisle is a reminiscence of the dissolu-
tion of the monastic houses in a 17th century window
containing a portrait of Robert King, last Abbot of
Osney and first Bishop of Oxford, with the Abbey in
the background, while, in the east window of the
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I] INTRODUCTORY 13
soath transept, is some 14th century glass, notably
a panel of the murder of St Thomas of Canterbury,
the saint, as is often the case, being headless.
Exeter possesses, as things go, a fair amount of
old glass. In the great east window is some early
14th century glass, much of which was in the window
which preceded the present one, itself as old as 1390
or thereabouts. The survivals from the older window
seem to be SS. Margaret, Catherine, Mary Magdalen,
Peter, Paul and Andrew ; the others — SS. Sidwell,
Helena, Michael, Margaret, Catherine, Edward and
Edmund, and Abraham, Moses and Isaiah — being
contemporary with the existing window. In the
central bay of the north clerestory are four headless
figures of the Early Decorated period, while in the
Magdalen and Gabriel chapels is some 16th century
glass. At Wells there is, probably, more old glass
than ill most of the English cathedrals. In the west
window of the nave are figures of King Ina and
Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury of the Perpendicular
period and renaissance panels representing the life
of St John the Baptist, brought from Rouen and
Cologne in 1670. The great east window and the
two clerestory windows of the choir adjoining it are
ancient (about 1340). In the east window is A stem
of Jesse and also, in the tracery, a picture of the
Last Judgment, which is continued in the tracery of
the clerestory windows. In the lower lights of the
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14 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
easternmost window of the north clerestory are
figure and canopy subjects, one of them St George.
In St Catherine's chapel and the south choir aisle
are many fragments, while the windows of the Lady
chapel are filled with glass of various dates. The
east window of this chapel was restored by Willement
and contains two tiers of figures under canopies, in
the tracery above being angels holding shields with
the Instruments of the Passion. Other traceries shew
an evangelist's symbol and heads of patriarchs and
saints. In the Chapter Hou&e are fragments, among
them the arms of England ancient (Le. the lilies of
France in the first and fourth quarters and th^^
English lions in the second and third) and those of
Mortimer. In the Vicars' chapel are the arms of
Bishop Bubwith (1407— 1424)— three chaplets of
holly leaves.
These examples of the present-day condition of
ancient painted glass in some old English cathedrals,
churches and chapels will suffice not only to shew
how comparatively little of the old glass is left in
any one building, but to demonstrate the difficulty
of appreciating what has been lost or destroyed.
Time was when these and similar fragments were
but minute parts of an ordered arrangement for
admitting light through coloured media into the
building which they adorned, an arrangement which
was itself a part only of a great scheme comprising
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I] INTRODUCTORY 16
the whole building and everything belonging to it,
its architecture, its wall-paintings and its coloured
and gilded pillars and arches, and the wood-work of
roof and doors and screens. All being so richly
coloured and gilt, why should the windows be ex-
cepted ? They were not : the broken border seen
to-day ran round the whole window, the saint's figure
was part of a small picture set in the midst of a
trellis of vine shoots, oak-sprigs or ivy-leaves. The
evangelist's symbol, to-day probably broken, was one
of four — the winged man of St Matthew, the winged
lion of St Mark, the winged ox of St Luke and the
eagle of St John — which filled the tracery lights
where now we see the one solitary symbol. All the
windows were wholly stained and painted, thus con-
tributing to the total effect — the harmony which
resulted from the unity of effort of mason, wood-
carver, painter and worker in glass.
In a sense, however, this decorative or artistic
effect was but an accident, though one which invari-
ably resulted from the mediaeval craftsman's work.
Primarily, the idea underlying all this unified beauty
in old buildings was usefulness— the notion of means
to an end. Craftsmen of the Middle Ages knew
nothing of art for art's sake : their object was to
produce something useful and fitting to the end in
view. If their work was beautiful it was so because
it answered that end and according to the degree in
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16 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
which it did so. Now the end to be kept in view
in all work connected with a church was, to the
mediaeval mind, instruction — the driving home, as
it were, through the senses, of the Church's message.
As paintings on walls and pillars (such as we may see
to-day in many churches, notably the 13th century
church of Our Lady and St Laurence at Trier and
St Albans' Abbey church) shewed, to learned and
unlearned alike, the story of the Church's life
through the centuries, so painted windows did the
same.
It follows, therefore, that any enquiry into the
origin and history of stained and painted gla^, if
exhaustively carried out, must embrace very much
more than that one subject It branches out into
every craft that is concerned with the history of
buildings of all sorts — of cathedrals and parish and
collegiate churches, of monastic houses, colleges,
castles and palaces, moot-halls and manor-houses,
for in all of these glass painting was used, in con-
junction with the other crafts and arts, to minister
to the ends for which such buildings were set up.
This notion of unity of endeavour and its results
being always borne in mind, we may with advantage
turn to the classical example — as it may be called —
of the use to which painted windows were put in old
days — the church of Fairford in Gloucestershire, where
every window retains its ancient painted glass. Even
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at Fairford, however, we must bear in mind that
owing to the destruction of much of the old internal
colour — wall-paintings and such-like — we cannot cor-
rectly estimate the original colour eflfect of the old
glass. But, although the harmony which resulted
from painted wall-spaces between the coloured win-
dows is lost, the subject scheme of the Fairford
windows can still be worked out and we can see what
was the teaching end for which they were adapted.
The plan of Fairford church is a nave with north
and south aisles, chancel and central tower. The east
end of each aisle forms a chapel. Our Lady's chapel
on the north and the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
on the south. These chapels are separated from the
aisles, of which they respectively form part, and from
the chancel, by carved wooden screens, and the
chancel-screen across the nave may be treated as
connecting together the western screens of the chapels,
so that the whole church may be said to be divided by
screens into two parts, an eastern and a western. The
significance of this arrangement in connection with
the subjects depicted in the windows we shall presently
see.
Since Fairford church — ^as we see it to-day — dates
from the last decade of the 15th century, we should
expect to find its windows wide and lofty, and so they
are. In the north aisle there are five windows of
four lights each, and in the Lady chapel are three
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windows, two on the north of four lights each and
one in the east wall of five lights. In the chancel is
a great east window of five lights divided into two
tiers, and one window of three lights in the south
wall, while the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament has
the same window arrangement as the north aisle
chapel. In the south aisle there are four windows
only of the same size as those in the north aisle, an
arrangement rendered necessary by the south door
occupying the space which one window would have
filled. Besides all these, there are eight windows of
three lights each — four on either side — ^in the cleres-
tory, and a large window flanked by two smaller ones
in the west wall.
What are the subjects portrayed in these twenty-
seven spacious wall-openings and of what practical
use were they intended to be ? Their main purpose
was to give a pictorial representation of Christian
theology. In that part of the church which is east-
ward of the dividing line of screens, are set forth in
picture- windows the facts, as taught by the Church,
on which Christianity rests, and, in the western part
of the church are what may be called the inferences
to be drawn fi"om those facts, viz. the Apostles' Creed,
the Church's teaching as symbolised by her ancient
doctors, the Church's life as shewn forth by her saints
and martyrs, and the final Judgment, the consumma-
tion of all things temporal.
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It would be impossible within the limits at our
disposal to attempt a detailed account of the subjects
of these windows. Speaking generally, the Lady
chapel and the nave window immediately outside it
on the west, set forth the story of Our Lord's birth,
of the events which preceded it, and of His early
years, beginning with the Temptation of Eve, Moses
at the Burning Bush, Gideon and the Fleece, and the
Qvjeen of Sheha offering gifts to Solomon, Old Testa-
ment types of the Annunciation, the Conception oj
Our Lord, His Incarnation and the Adoration of
the three Kings respectively.
The last picture in the Lady chapel represents
Our Lord as a child teaching the Doctors in the
Temple, while the lower half of the great east window
in the chancel takes up the story of the closing scenes
of His earthly life — His triumphal entry into Jeru-
salem, His Agony in the Garden, the judgmsnt of
Pontius Pilate, and Our Lords Scourging at the
Pillar. Above these is the picture of the Crucifixion
which occupies the full breadth of the window. In
the south window of the chancel are three lights
shewing the taking doum from the Cross, the En-
tombment and Owr Lord preaching to the Spirits in
Limbo.
In the Blessed Sacrament chapel the centre
light of the east window is devoted to the Trams-
figuration of Our Lord as a type of the miracle of
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20 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
Transubstantiation, while the other windows shew the
Resurrection and the principal events of Our Lord's
subsequent life on earth, ending with His Ascension
into Heaven. This long list of Christian facts, as we
have called them, ends with the Descent of the Holy
Ghost upon the Apostles.
Now for the inferences from these facts. In the
first three windows of the south aisle — counting from
the east — ^are the twelve Apostles, four in each
window, and each one bearing a scroll containing
a part of the Apostles' CreeA This is in accordance
with ecclesiastical tradition, which teaches that, before
the Apostles separated for their missionary labours,
they composed this creed, each contributing a portion.
St Peter, bearing a scroll with the inscription, "Credo
in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem coeli et
terrsB," begins the series and St Matthias ends it
with the closing words of the creed "Et vitam seter-
nam."
To balance and complement this apostolical com-
pany we find opposite to them, in the north aisle,
figures of the twelve Old Testament prophets, be-
ginning with Jeremiah, whose scroll contains the
words, "Patrem invocabitis qui fecit et condidit
coelos," opposite to St Peter, and ending with Abdias
(Obadiah), opposite to St Matthias, with the words
"Et erit regnum Domini." So far the Creed.
There remain the westernmost windows of the
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aisles. These contain, on the south, the four great
Doctors of the Church — SS. Jerome, Gregory, Ambrose
and Augustine of Hippo — and, on the north, opposite
to them the four evangelists ; thus completing what
may be called the direct teaching of the Church.
Next, going aloft to the clerestory, we see results
of that teaching symbolised by figures, on the south
side, of saints and martyrs — Dorothy, Sebastian,
Agnes, Margaret, a Bishop, perhaps St Thomas of
Canterbury, an Emperor and two Kings, a Pope and
two Cardinals, and, opposite to them — opposite in
the moral order as well as in actual position — ^are
twelve figures of persecutors, Annas and Caiaphas
with Judas, Herod, Diocletian and others.
Last of all, we turn to the western wall of the
church, where, in the centre, is a great window of
seven long lights, divided, like the east window, by
a transom.
In the upper part Our Lord, as final judge of all,
sits enthroned, surrounded by the Heavenly Hierarchy
in circles — Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim and the
twelve Apostles. On the right hand of the Great
Judge is a lily and, on a scroll above His shoulder,
the word " Misericordia," while, on His left, is a
sword, and a scroll inscribed " Justitia" — the lily of
mercy and the sword of justice. Before Him kneel
Our Lady and St John the Baptist as suppliants for
worldlings, while the orb of the world, glowing as
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with fire and its buildings crumbling into ruin, is
beneath His feet
In the lower half of this window is the result of
the Last Judgment, St Michael dividing the lost souls
from the saved. On his right is the Paradise of the
Blessed, on his left the eternal home of the con-
demned ones, and, around his feet, are the dead
arising from their graves. On either side of this great
picture is a smaller window — the northern one shewing
the Judgment of Solomon, and that on the south the
Judgment of David upon the Amalekite who slew
Saul, both types of the final Doom between them.
The essential fact to bear in mind is that this
arrangement in painted glass at Fairford is the great
surviving example in the British Isles of what, in
more or less varied form, we might have seen in
every church, great and small, in mediaeval Europe.
Small churches would compress the series, larger
ones would amplify it, and its arrangement might be
varied, but, certainly, in the western world, the plan
was universal from the 12th century onwards. The
windows of the eastern end of the church set forth
the tale of the Gospel, the nave shewed the prophets
and Apostles, and the west window reminded folk as
they left church of the last scene of all — the Great
Judgment.
The fragmentary state of old ipainted glass seems
to be due to several causes of which fanatical violence
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I] INTRODUCTORY 23
is, probably, the least It has long been the fashion
to throw the blame very largely upon the Puritans,
and, more particularly, upon CromwelVs soldiers.
There is, no doubt, a mea^iure of justice in this view,
for there are instances on record of smashing of
picture-windows in Commonwealth days both by
fanatical civilians and by Parliamentary soldiers.
Examples of the one we have in Blue Dick's rage
against the painted windows at Canterbury and the
fanatic Dowsing's window-smashing in the course of
a journey, undertaken for the purpose, through parts
of East Anglia, and of the other in the destruction of
painted glass in Winchester cathedral and other
great churches by the Commonwealth soldiery. But
these, and similar, outbreaks were more or less
isolated acts of violence and it is certain that they
could not account for the disappearance of the greater
part of the ancient glass throughout England. Neither
is there reason to believe that Queen Elizabeth's
Ordinance for the destruction of superstitious painted
windows in churches was generally obeyed.
Here and there we come across instances of the
intentional breaking of the old windows by church
authorities — as at Long Melford, SuflTolk, where the
churchwardens' accounts shew a payment of Il«. to
"Fyrmyer the Glasyer of Sudburye for defacing of
the sentences and imagerie in the glasse wyndowes "
— but such cases are rare.
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24 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh. i
What actually happened in Elizabeth's days was,
probably; consistent with what we are told by William
Harrison, himself a country clergyman, Rector of
Badwinter in Essex. He was the author of A
Description of Englcmd, prefixed to Holinshed's
Chronicle, published in 1577, and he tells us, in his
Description, that " As for churches themselves, belles
and times of morning and evening pmier remain as in
time past, saving that all images, shrines, tabernacles,
rood loftes and monuments of idolatrie are removed,
taken down and defaced : Onlie the stories in glasse
windowes excepted, which, for want of sufficient
store of new stufie, and by reason of extreame charge
that should grow by the alteration of the same into
white panes throughout the realme, are not altogether
abolished in most places at once, but by little and
little sufiered to decaie that white glass may be set
up in their roomes."
Neglect, therefore, more than violence, was the
enemy of the old glass through Tudor and Stuart
days, and we may safely conclude that that fitctor,
with the restoring zeal — often ill-instructed — of the
last century and a half, are together responsible for
the deplorable state to-day of ancient painted glass
in England.
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CHAPTER II
NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH STYLES (1050 — 1272)
From the middle of the 7th century, when
Benedict Biscop brought glass-workers from Gaul to
glaze the windows of his stone churches at Wearmouth
and Jarrow, glass, in buildings of the larger kind,
was increasingly used in England in lieu of the horn
laminae and oiled cloth theretofore employed to close
window openings. The exact date when plain glass
— itself of varied hues — began to give way to glass
intentionally coloured and arranged in patterns we
do not know, but, from the remains which exist in
continental churches, we may infer that the glass
which filled the small, round-headed windows of the
churches set up in England in late Anglo-Saxon and
early Nonnan times was coloured, and did not,
materially, differ in structure and colour from that
of the later Norman and Early English periods which
immediately followed them.
It is likely that accidental varieties in colour,
arising from the crudeness of the methods of glass
manufacture, originated the idea of applying colour
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26 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
to glass, and it is easy to see how the idea, oDce
formed, led to ordered arrangements of pieces of glass,
diversely coloured, and how they, in time, resulted in
the geometrical patterns and picture panels of the
late Norman and Early English styles. It is probable,
too, that the art of glass-mosaic had a part in the
early development of the coloured window.
Glass wall-mosaics for interior decoration were in
use in the East as early as the 6th century, and what
more likely than that the glazier would think of
utilising the small pieces of glass used by the mosaic
worker for the purposes of his own craft ? It must
have been quite the obvious thing to set the pieces
of glass in stucco or cement of some kind and the
idea of the soft lead binding, grooved on both sides,
would speedily follow. Indeed, it is said that alabaster
was used in the great church of Santa Sophia, Con-
stantinople, for glass setting.
A point to remember is that binding of some sort
was a necessity for early glaziers, for glass in those
days was made only in small pieces, none of them
large enough to fill any but the smallest window, and
we can well understand how this necessary support,
as patterns became more intricate, was made to
follow the outlines of the design and grew into an
integral part of it. Indeed, we may say that the lead
binding of a painted window, besides holding together
the pieces of glass of which the window is formed.
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II] NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 27
serves the same end as the black outline to figures
and other objects which is an invariable feature of
the miniatures and scroll-work in illuminated manu-
scripts of the Middle Ages.
This decorative as well as useful oflBce of lead
binding is in no style more conspicuous than in that
of the earliest painted window-glass of which we have
any first-hand knowledge — ^that of the 11th, 12th and
13th centuries. Especially is this noticeable in the
geometrical and floral pattern windows of those
periods.
The exactitude with which the lead binding
follows the intricacies of the small patterns is largely
productive of the sparkling jewel-like effect which is
characteristic of early glass.
The panels, once in the Sainte Chapelle, Paris,
and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South
Kensington, shew this quality very well.
It is often said that the oldest painted windows
in England are those in the Corona and Trinity
chapel at Canterbury cathedral. Undoubtedly they
belong to the style which we are considering and we
may assume that the great lancets in which they are
set, and which were finished by 1171, were originally
filled with painted glass. The subject, however, of the
present windows, the story of the miracles wrought
by the intercession of St Thomas of Canterbury —
which is shewn in a large number of medallions —
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28 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh. ii
suggests a later date for them than one so near the
time of his martyrdom, and we shall not be far wrong
if we fix that date shortly after 1220, in which year
the body of the saint was translated from the old
shrine in the crypt to the new one in the Trinity
chapel behind the High altar. Earlier than 1220
these windows cannot well be, for, in one of them,
is a representation of the new shrine set up in that
year, and it may well be that they are later in the
13th century even than 1220.
The huge "five sisters" lancets at York, too, are
sometimes brought forward as rivals to the Canter-
bury windows in the matter of age. They, however,
are made of white glass, with, comparatively, little
colour in their borders, a style which came in rather
later than the medallion style.
On the whole it is not easy to locate the oldest
piece of painted glass in the British Isles and it is
quite possible that it may be found in some of the
fragmentary glass which, from time to time, has been
brought from the continent — ^from France in par-
ticular — ^and leaded up in the windows of out-of-the-
way rural churches. One may, indeed, though with
diffidence, suggest that the four panels in the centre
light of the east window at Rivenhall church, Essex,
which were formerly in the apse of the church at
Ch^nu in France, may be older than any of the
original windows now existing in our churches. The
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The Ascension (Le Mans)
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30 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
pronounced Byzantine character of these medallions,
which represent our Lord in glory, His Entombment,
the Blessed Virgin Mary with Our Lord, and the
Annunciation, inclines one to think that they are
much earlier in date than the Canterbury windows.
However the question may stand as to our own
country, it is certain that for a sight of the oldest
extant painted glass we must turn to France, whence
the art of glass-painting came to England. In the
cathedral at Le Mans we find what we seek in one
of two windows which are the sole survivors of the
windows of the earlier church, which was devastated
by fire in 1134 and again in 1136. This window,
representing the Ascension^ shows twelve figures,
easily identified as the Apostles, looking up\^ards,
besides the Blessed Virgin Mary — ^the central figure
in the lower tier — who, according to the constant
tradition of the Church, was present at the Ascension.
The ascending figure of our Lord is absent, either
because it was left to the imagination, or, as is more
likely, because the upper part of the window has been
lost Judging by similar extant compositions of the
12th century, we should expect to find Our Lord's
figure surrounded by angels above those of the
Apostles. The date of this Ascermon window is
probably as early as the episcopate of Bishop Hoel
(1081 — 97), who is known to have glazed the windows
of Le Mans cathedral, and a great French authority,
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M. Hucher, suggests the year 1090. From the fieicile
character of the drawing, especially as evidenced by
the pose of the figures, we should judge that the
artist was an adept in the execution of sacred
pictures according to the ancient rules of Greek
Christian art. Perhaps the next painted glass in
point of age may be taken to be some of that in the
Abbey church of St Denis in France, the windows
of which were filled with coloured glass by Abbot
Suger in the middle of the 12th century.
It is necessary to bear in mind that there are
two kinds of coloured windows generally recognised
— ^pot-metal and enamel-painted The pot-metal
window is the original and the only kind usually
made until the middle of the 16th century, when the
use of enamel-colours for glass-painting came into
fashion. Pot-metal is the name given to glass which
is coloured in the course of manufacture — in the
crucible or pot — ^and which comes to the hands of
the glass-painter in the form of small sheets of
coloured glass, some blue, others green and so forth.
From these sheets are cut pieces of glass as required
by the artist's design; say, from. a sheet of ruby a
piece to represent a mantle, from a sheet of blue
a piece for sky, a clear white, or, in early times, a
pink and sometimes brown piece for head, arms and
hands.
When the design has, in this way, been made up,
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32 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
the artist paints, with an opaque pigment called
brown enamel, though it used to be purplish-grey
and the French call it black (not to be confounded
with enamel colours proper), upon the pieces of pot-
metal the details of his design — the features, hair,
hands, arms and feet of the figures and the folds
of their garments and such-like. With the brown
enamel he also puts in the shadows, using the pig-
ment either thickly or thinly according to the density
required. Thus, the only painting done by the artist
is with brown enamel, the colour of the design being
supplied by the pot-metaL This painting done, the
pieces of glass are placed in the kiln, the heat of
which makes the surface of the pot-metal to fuse
just enough to cause the artist's work in brown
enamel to be absorbed into and become part of,
itself. When the baking is done, the pieces of pot-
metal are handed over to the glazier, who binds
them up, according to the artist's design, with grooved
lead binding and the window is ready for fixing.
This, ignoring minor technicalities, is the story of
the making of every coloured window (with a few
exceptions) from the earliest times to the 16th cen-
tury, and it is the way in which nearly all coloured
windows have been made since the revival of the
ancient method in modern times.
A word as to enamel-painting on glass for window
purposes. As the pot-metal process probably grew
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out of wall-mosaic, so the enamel process may have
developed from painting on porcelain, and it is pos-
sible that, if the use of enamel glass-colour had been
known in the far-away days when the notion .of
coloured windows arose, the pot-metal window would
never have been. This would have been a mis-
fortune, for enamel-colours lack the brilliancy of
pot-metal.
Enamel-painting is simply painting on sheets of
white glass with prepared colours in the same way
as one paints in oil or water-colour. Each colour —
local colour, shadows and outline — is applied with
the brush, a great contrast to pot-metal work, in
which the local colour is supplied by the glass itself.
When the picture or design is finished, the sheet is
placed in the kiln and the work is completed in the
same way as a pot-metal window. As enamel glass-
colours were not invented till the 16th century, it is
obvious that we shall not be concerned with enamel-
painting until we reach that period
It may be of interest to note that a kind of glass-
painting, distinct both from pot-metal and enamel,
has, from time to time, been in use, a process which
has its advantage where extreme permanency is
not desired. That process is painting on glass with
colours ground in varnish, preferably amber varnish.
This plan enables one to use every tint and every
combination of tint, provided that they are transparent.
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34 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
for the local colours ; it is applicable both to pot-
metal and to sheet-glass and the troublesome and
risky process of baking in the kiln is dispensed
w|th. The eflfect of the baking, in the case of ordi-
nary glass-colour, is to fix the colour to the glass,
an effect which is attained, in varnish painting, by
the amber medium, which, locking up, as it were,
the colours in itself, adheres firmly to the glass.
The writer can say from experience, that permanency,
extending over many years, can be obtained by this
system of varnish-painting on glass, and that the
colours so treated become so well fixed and hard
as to resist the action of a metal scraper. It may,
therefore, be a question whether the process might
not be adopted in cases where expense is a fe^^tor
to be reckoned with — ^for varnish painting is cheaper
than kiln-baked work — especially where painted
windows are required for temporary churches or
for domestic buildings. The process has also the
sanction of antiquity, for Vasari tells us that it was
used by old Flemish painters with success, and we
know that the great artist Magister PavXuSy painted
some windows in this medium for the Friars Minor
at Venice and that copies of them were set up at the
Franciscan Friary at Treviso.
To return to the style which we have under con-
sideration — the late Norman and Early English — all
pot-metal work, of course. The earliest windows in
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this style are made entirely of coloured glass, for it
was not until later that white glass (really greenish-
blue) decorated with patterns in brown enamel came
into use. These early coloured windows, which follow
immediately in point of date that very old glass of
which the Ascension at Le Mans is an example, are
of four kinds :
Medallion windows,
Figures with or without canopies,
Jesse windows.
Coloured patterns.
The oldest medallion windows, those of the 12th
century, ought, perhaps, to be placed in a class by
themselves. They mark the transition from the
Byzantine Ascension type to the more ornate medal-
lion vnndows, such as those at Canterbury and the
Sainte Chapelle, Paris. This transitional glass is
very rare, and we may take, as typical of the class,
a window at Le Mans cathedral which represents
the story of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. In the
Ascension type of window the divisional lines were
rectangular, while in the later medallion style they
were, on the whole, curvilinear. The SS. Gervasius
and Protasius window shews both types. Of the centre
panels some are square, others are circular, the top
one is vesica-like and those at the sides are recti-
linear. We also see, in the small spaces between the
3—2
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36 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch. ii
circular and square panels, the beginnings of those
floral fillings-in which constitute so marked a charac-
teristic of the later medallion windows. All these
features are shewn in our illustration — three panels,
originally in the fourth tier from the top of the
window, representing the martyrdom of St Gervasius.
Part of the border of the centre panel, as the illus-
tration indicates, has been cut off in the setting,
perhaps in modern times. While upon the subject
of this transitional glass one is tempted to suggest
that the Rivenhall panels may be of the same style.
As time went on, medallions became less square
and more curved in their main lines. For as good
an early example as can be found, we may turn
again to Le Mans and take one of the long lancets
(13th century) which set forth the life of Our Lady.
Our illustration shews the top panel of this window
— Our Lady crowned and enthroned in the midst of
flowers and holding them in her hands, a composition
which, as M. Hucher remarks, recalls that passage
of the Golden Legend : " Nazareth means a flower ;
as St Bernard has said, Mary, herself a flower, wished
to be bom of a flower, in a flower and at the time of
flowers.'*
Here we have square and round panels set, not
one over the other, as in the 12th century, but in
different lines of verticality, thus producing greater
variety of outline and giving occasion for extension of
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38
ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS
[CH.
the flora] fillings-in and for the introduction of more
elaboration in the backgrounds. In the base of this
lancfet is an interesting feature. The donors of the
window, the guild of money-changers of Le Mans,
Oar Lady enthroned (Le Mans)
are seen at their work. Here a money-changer is
testing a coin, there one weighs money in a balance,
and above these, we see others doing business with
customers from whom they seem to be receiving
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some goblets and handing over long purses ap-
parently full of money in return.
The Money-changers (Le Mans)
This is an early example of a practice, common in
all periods, whereby those at whose expense a work
of sacred art had been made, were commemorated
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40 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
in the work itsel£ In altar-pieces, wall-paintings
and painted windows we see the same practice.
Beginning, as at Le Mans and Chartres (where some
thirty different guilds gave windows), with pictures
of donors doing their usual work, the system had,
by the 15th century, developed into an incorporation
of the donor into the story portrayed. He or she
would be represented in an attitude of devotion, as
if actually in the presence of the holy persons shewn
in the picture, and, sometimes, as in the act of being
introduced by a patron-saint to their notice. Shields
of donors* arms, too, would be placed beneath their
figures, as in a 15th century canopy- window at St L6.
In the renaissance glass pictures of the 16th and I7th
centuries this custom was carried so far as to make
the picture subservient to the donors, whose figures
are painted disproportionately large. Interesting
examples of this decadent practice may be seen at
the church of Montfort L'Amaury near Paris, where
carefully painted portraits of donors — kneeling in
prayer, it is true — fill the foregrounds of the pictures.
Perhaps an extreme instance is the 16th century
Jesse window at St Stephen's church, Beauvais, in
which portraits of reigning kings are introduced as
blossoms on the genealogical tree. Onwards from
the early part of the 16th century inscriptions, with
or without coats of arms, were often substituted for
the figures of donors. This practice is illustrated
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II] NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 41
by the little panels from Baden now in the south
window of the chancel at Lambourne, Essex and by
the four fragmentary windows, survivors of many,
one of which bears the words, " Thys wendow made
be the good man Thomas Francys 1526" — at South
Mymms, Middlesex. As the object of all these forms
of commemoration of donors was to remind posterity
to offer prayers for their souls^ none of them occur
in England from the days of Philip and Mary to the
revival of Catholicism in the 19th century.
The 13th century medallions became gradually
more and more complex in design, the square panels
disappearing and the circular ones becoming quatre-
foiled, while background patterns became yet more
elaborate. Another example from Le Mans — the
adoration of the three kings — shews this very well.
At Tours cathedral, also, are very similar designs
made up of vertical rows of quatre-foils in the centre
with side-rows of semi-circles. In all these later
medallion windows should be noted the closeness
of the lead binding and consequent smallness of the
pieces of glass which, together, help to produce the
jewel-like effect to which we have before referred.
Also, it should be remembered that, in this style the
panels are set in iron bars, indicated in the illus-
trations by thick black lines.
The St Thomas windows at Canterbury may be
taken as typical of the fully developed medallion
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42 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
style, and they afford the best, and very available
examples in England for study of 13th century glass
of this character. Their panels are of all possible
shapes and their fillings-in and borders are very
elaborate. They and the glass from the Sainte
Chapelle in the Victoria and Albert Museum will
amply satisfy a desire for first-hand knowledge of
late medallion windows.
Speaking generally, the use of coloured, to the
exclusion of white, glass is characteristic of the early
medallion style. Necessary contrasts were obtained
by using light colours on dark, as e.g. light-coloured
figures on a dark background or vice versd, and
when, as in the case of the Canterbury windows,
white or very light glass is extensively used, it is a
sign of late work.
It is obvious that 13th century medallion windows
would have a tendency to exclude light Little or
no white glass and much lead binding would, to-
gether, ensure this. While the dim light thus caused
is agreeable enough at the floor-level of a great
church, we need, as a corrective, brighter light from
above.
Therefore it was that the clerestory windows in
the 13th century were usually, but not always — ^as
witness the clerestory medallion windows in the choir
at Tours cathedral — glazed in a totally different style
from the main windows. The idea being to admit light.
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II] NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 43
single figurod of great size — often under low canopies
— the make of which would allow of the use of large
Fragment of figure and canopy. Wilton. (13th century)
pieces of glass, were inserted in the clerestory ; in
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44 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
each window, as a rule, one figure, bui sometimes
two, one above the other. At Canterbury, in the
clerestory of the Trinity chapel, were such figures
as these representing the Old Testament ancestors
of Our Lord; but they are gone. Similar figures,
however, noticeable for richness of colour in their
dress and in backgrounds and borders, may be seen
in the clerestories of many continental churches ; in
particular, at the cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims,
and Bourges. Such figures were, in this style, some-
times placed elsewhere than in the clerestory. Several
of them, each under a small low-crowned canopy —
both figure and canopy being richly coloured — ^would,
one above the other, fill a tall lancet To this class
also belong figures without canopies on white or
coloured grounds, of which the gigantic St Chris-
topher (30 ft high) at Strasburg cathedral may be
taken as an example.
While in France the medallion type continued in
use long after the single large lancet had given place
to the muUioned and traceried window — as witness
the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, built by St Louis in
1248 — in England it was given up when muUioned
windows were introduced. Then came the white
windows, so-called, though they were not without
colour here and there, especially in the borders.
The finest specimen in England is the Five sisters
window at York cathedral, five great lancets, with
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II] NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 45
clustered mulllons between them, occupying the
whole width of the end wall of the north transept
At Salisbury cathedral are five, unhappily, mutilated,
windows of the same class, though earlier in date
than the Five sisters, as is partly evidenced by the
greater quantity of colour in the borders.
At Westwell church, in Kent, is an interesting
example of a small white window, made up of quarries
(panes) decorated in brown enamel set in a white and
coloured border. Bits of colour, too, are scattered
about the quarries. Sometimes such coloured pieces
are developed into panels containing pictures or
shields of arms, as in the east window of Chetwode
church, Bucks. In connection with these white win-
dows we may notice, in late specimens, the beginning
of a practice, which became common in the Decorated
period, of placing a row of figures under low canopies
(like the Wilton example) horizontally across the
lower half of a window.
Thirteenth century Jesse windows might, perhaps,
be classed as medallions, for they are designed upon
similar principles. In both kinds we have small
pictures or single figures in panels the subjects of
which have relation one to another. In the case
of the Jesse, however, the panels are visibly con-
nected by branches of a tree, the stock of which
springs from the side of a recumbent human figure
in the base of the design. A Jesse window then, is
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White window (Westwell)
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CH. II] NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 47
simply a genealogical tree, in the form in which
family pedigrees have been drawn from very early
times, shewing the earthly descent of Our Lord, as
set forth in St Matthew's Gospel, from Jesse, the
father of King David, through the Patriarchs and
the Kings of Judah. The number of such ancestors
varies with the size of the window and the period ;
in the early Je%»e at Chartres cathedral there are
four only, all kings, while, in later examples, there
are as many as fifty. In 13th century Jesses the
figures are seated, holding the branches of the tree
with both hands, while, in the latest examples (16th
century), they are, usually, half-length figures issuing
from flowers. Most of the continental cathedrals,
notably Chartres and Beauvais, can shew 13th cen-
tury Jesse windows or fragments of them, and in
England, besides remains of Jesses of the same
period at Canterbury, York, and elsewhere, there
are many panels, more than is generally supposed,
which have once been parts of such windows, scat-
tered up and down the country in out-of-the-way
churches. An example is the central of the three
lancets already referred to at Westwell church, Kent,
which contains fragments of panels shewing pictures
in the life of Our Lord, a distinct variety of the
Jesse window, and it may, perhaps, be the case that
the Rivenhall panels belonged to the same type.
Jesses are usually, or have originally been, in eastern
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48 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
chancel windows or in north or south walls of tran-
septs, and very often, as at Westwell, in a central
lancet flanked by white windows.
As to the coloured-pattern windows, such as we
see at St Denis, they are rare, and, as is the case
with the mixed white and colour pattern, which
grew out of them, there are no known examples in
England. The predominant colours in the Early
English period were red and blue, the red or ruby
very streaky and the blue sapphire-like in colour,
either very deep or very light The yellow was cold
and greenish in tone, very unlike the bright hue of
the yellow stain introduced in the 14th century. For
flesh tints pink, or even brown, glass was used. The
glass itself was thick, and, also, uneven, a circum-
stance to which it owed some, at least, of its sparkle.
The 11th, 12th and 13th century figures, like all
well-designed figures intended to be viewed from a
much lower level than their own, were dispropor-
tionately tall, and, of some of them, those of the
later period, may be characterised as stiff in drawing;
nothing can be better than the easy pose and swing
of the earlier ones: as witness the figures in the
Ascension at Le Mans.
One feature of the glass of this period should be
noted: the floral ornaments are purely classical in
design. This fact, illustrating, as it does, the great
doctrine of evolution as applied to the arts, shews that
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II] NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 49
the early glass-painters had received the artistic tra-
ditions of ancient Rome and Greece and proves that
glass-painting, in those early days when first we hear
of it, was no parvenu, but had legitimately developed
along the same lines as the other decorative crafts
from the works of the great artists of antiquity.
We shall see better the significance of this matter
of orderly development when we come to the 16th
century.
CHAPTER HI
THE DECORATED STYLE (1272 — 1377)
The story of painted glass, in so far as it has
developed along legitimate lines, has been a con-
tinuous one. There is no moment at which we can
say that one style has ended and another has begun :
change is gradual, the leading features of the one
style fading imperceptibly into those of its successor.
This is in the nature of things : the lives and daily
work of those craftsmen who have lived in the last
days of a style survive the date at which it is
commonly said to end. They go on using glass of
much the same texture and tone, their colours and
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60 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
methods of work change little, but all the time the
tendency is towards yariation, mainly in details. In
this slow fashion the Early English style melted into
the Decorated, till, at last, we get the late 14th
century window with its masses of white and yellow
glass contrasting with great splashes of colour —
figures, shields or picture panels — scattered about its
surfaca
Although we could easily assign any such window
to its proper style, and, with equal certainty, tell
the approximate date of a 13th century medallion
window, we should find the task of tracing the steps
which led from the earlier to the later window a
long and intricate one. The laws which govern the
evolution of the works of man, like those which deal
with natural phenomena, are, for the most part, slow
and gradual in operation : the cataclysmic has little
share in progress.
The earliest of the many influences which brought
about the change of style from Early English to
Decorated work seems to have been a tendency to
naturalism in the drawing of flowers and leaves. At
first sight, there is but little difference between the
border of the white window at Westwell and that
at Roydon shewn in our first chapter. A second
glance, however, shews that the coloured orna-
ments (features of both designs) vary considerably
in treatment. The Westwell design is stiff" and
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Ill] THE DECORATED STYLE 51
conventional while the other, especially the stalk, is
natural.
So gradual indeed was the change, that it was not
until the first decade of the 14th century was nearing
its end that any readily noticeable difierence in style
was apparent About that time two causes — one
the result of orderly development and the other of
an accidental discovery — combined to produce dis-
tinct variation from the Early English type. First,
the naturalistic school developed rapidly : exact
copies of foliage — oak, ivy, vine, maple — ^took the
place of the conventional leaves, modelled on classical
examples, of the Early English period. Nor did
naturalism stop here, for the leaves were made to
spring from tendrils and branches issuing from a
central stock. The fruits, too, were shewn — acorns,
ivy-berries or grapes. Foliage such as this was made
to run over the white glass the leads of which were
arranged in geometrical form — reminiscent of the
Early English period. To complete the naturalistic
idea, bands of double lines — sometimes patterned
and coloured yellow — followed the course of the
leads, so that the branches of the tree or vine seemed
to run in and out of a trellis, a circumstance which
has given name to such windows — trellis windows.
Very complete examples are in the side windows
at Merton College chapel, Oxford. We may here
notice the unfortunate treatment which many trellis
4—2
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52 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH. in
windows — notably at Exeter cathedral — have received
from would-be restorers. Either from ignorance of
the original character of trellis windows or from
disinclination to the trouble necessary to restore
them properly, when broken or fragmentary, their
irregular-shaped quarries have been cut up into
pieces, all of one shape and size, and leaded up so
as to form a window of lozenge-shaped quarries.
Sometimes, indeed, they have been mixed up with
quarries originally lozenge shaped, decorated with
conventional designs, of a later date. Of this sort
of muddle our frontispiece affords a specimen.
Though slow and orderly change is the ordinary
law of development for the arts, it happens at times,
though comparatively rarely, that rapid change in
style or workmanship is brought about by an un-
expected event Such an event was the discovery,
in the early years of the 14th century, of the fitct
that chloride of silver will impart to white glass,
when heated in the kiln, a brilliant yellow stain,
varying in tone, according to treatment, from bright
lemon to deep orange. The value of this discovery
can best be gauged by taking one's stand before
a large 14th or 15th century window and trying
to understand how it would look if all the yellow
were banished from the canopies, floral ornaments,
pedestals, monograms, shields and so forth which
form the background to its main features. At once
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fit.
Trellis Window (Merton College, Oxford)
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64 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ca
we see that the result would be hardness and cold-
ness, and we come to understand that it was the
discovery of the yellow stain — whereby an artist
was enabled to impart warmth to his outline designs
on white glass — which made these great windows,
mainly composed of white glass, so pleasant to the
eya For, although yellow glass coloured in the
crucible — pot-metal — was in everyday use centuries
before the yellow stain was discovered, it could only
be used — ^like all pot-metal glass — by cutting from
the sheet pieces of the size required and fixing them
with lead binding into their places in the design.
Try to appreciate the loss of light and increase of
the appearance of weight which would result from
the substitution of pot-metal yellow, with its leaden
binding, for every bit of yellow stain on white glass
in such a window as we have supposed The result
would, probably, be an approximation to an Early
English mosaic-window.
The yellow stain came just at the right time, for
architects were making the divisions between lancet
windows ever narrower, thus, in effect, throwing
several windows into one, and, as a natural con-
sequence, creating a demand for a lighter and
brighter style of coloured glass than had hitherto
been the fashion. To this demand the glass-painter
responded with his white backgrounds made up of
quarries decorated with delicately painted designs
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iTi] THE DECORATED STYLE 65
in brown enamel, heightened with yellow stain,
which, while they admitted a sufficiency of light, at
the same time mellowed it and served also to throw
into relief the masses of colour in which the stories
that the windows told were enshrined.
These stories were, as a rule, strictly in accordance
with the scheme to which we referred in the firet
chapter, and with the position in the church of the
windows in which they were placed. In the early
years of the style they would be in panels set in a
background of white glass heightened with yellow,
while single figure subjects — such as Apostles, Pro-
phets and Saints — ^would be under canopies, mostly
white and yellow, though often partly coloured. The
figures themselves would form distinct masses of
bright colour, and when, as was usually the case,
they stood side by side — one in each light — ^they
formed a belt of colour right across the main lights
of the window. Hence, such windows as these are
called hdt windows. Often, as in the aisle windows
at York, we find, in this style, two belts of figures
under canopies with small coloured panels, in the
centres of the white glass intervals, containing either
shields of arms or small ornamental designs. In the
case of one belt only the coloured panels are seldom
found and the whole background is white and yellow.
Another kind of arrangement common all through
the Decorated period, was that of small figures under
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66 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [cam
canopies^ one above another, the white and yellow
pf the canopies making a set-oflf to the bright colour
of the figures.
In small windows, such as north and south chancel-
lights, we find the whole space taken up by a single
figure under a canopy, with small pictures, often of
the donors of the windows, beneath the tese upon
which the figure stands. Sometimes, the base was
a grassy mound picked out with flowers, as in the
St Edward at Stapleford Abbots, or, more usually,
a black and white chequered pavement, but there
were no pedestals until quite the end of the style,
when it was passing into the Perpendicular period.
An important factor in the formation of the
Decorated style was the extent to which, by the
beginning of the 14th century, the use of tracery
in the upper parts of windows had developed. All
through the style the space occupied by tracery, in
the case of large windows, continued to increase, so
that we often find nearly one-half of a late Decorated
window taken up by tracery. The task of the glass-
painter was to fill tracery lights in a way that would
harmonise with the glass of the main lights. This
he did by making his tracery-glass white and yellow
when the lower lights were either wholly of that
kind or when there was but one belt of bright colour
across theuL When, however, there were two colour
belts the tracery lights also were coloured, thus
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^JIjI^WB^I
St Edward, E. and C. (Stapleford Abbots).
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68 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
preserving a balance between the upper and lower
parts of the window. An interesting point to be
noted in this connection is that we, sometimes, find
Early English glass in the tracery over glass of the
Decorated period in the lower lights. In such cases
the stonework of the window is Early English, and,
the original glass of the same period in the lower
lights having been broken, or, for some reason re-
moved, Decorated glass has been inserted in its
place. This kind of thing happened at all transitional
periods. A curious example is the east-window at
Sheering church near Harlow where the very elabo-
rate late Decorated tracery (about 1370) is filled
with contemporary glass representing the coronation
in heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary, while, in the
lower lights, we find glass of quite recent date.
Another instance is the five-light perpendicular east-
window at Dyserth' church, Flintshire, in which the
tracery is filled with mid-1 5th century glass, while
in the main lights is a 16th century Jesse-tree.
The gradual elaboration and heightening of the
upper parts of all architectural features — ^window-
traceries, canopies and tabernacle-work in general —
in the Decorated period, is responsible, too, for a
similar change in the canopies over figures in painted
windows. The tendency (often, in this style, carried
to great excess) is always towards disproportionate
height of the canopy relative to that of the figure
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Ill] THE DECORATED STYLE 59
beneath it Another featnre of the canopy-window,
which becomes noticeable as the Decorated style
advances, is the practice of making the lower of two
belts of figures and canopies subordinate to the
upper one, so that, while the lower canopies are feirly
low, the upper ones range aloft into a central tower
and spire, with which side-pinnacles, springing from
the pillars of the canopy, are connected by flying
buttresses. Both spires and pinnacles are usually
on a coloured ground. While, in early Decorated
work the crockets and finials of the pinnacles and
spires are stifi* and formal in design, they develop
later into graceful leaf-like forms. This was in sym-
pathy with contemporary architecture and is another
proof of the close connection which subsisted, during
the Gothic period, between architecture and its
ancillary crafts.
Figu/re and ecmopy-windows (a term usually
confined to windows with high lower lights contain-
ing figures under very lofty canopies) were, speaking
generally, although there was no positive rule, placed
at the ends of buUdings and high up, while the side
windows were filled with white and yeUow pattern
glass, either alone or with belts of canopies or panels.
Similarly, great variety of practice exists — no doubt
expense was an important factor — with regard to
the relative amount and distribution through the
building of white and yellow pattern and coloured
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60 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
glass. In some cases, especially in small rural churches,
all the windows, except, perhaps, the east-window,
would be fiUed with white and yellow glass alone.
An interesting example is Bradwell, near Witham,
where much fragmentary original glass remains in
situu Another instance is the east window of the north
aisle at Homchurch in Essex, where the monotony of
the white pattern quarries is broken by a picture of
the Crucifixion in the middle one of the three main
lights and by a shield of arms, surrounded by a
narrow circular border, with ruby fillings-in between
the shield and the border, in each of the side-lights.
An opportunity for colour is found, also, in the border
running round the three lights, which consists of
yeUow lions* fewjes on a white pattern ground alter-
nating with pieces of plain blue glass. In the tracery,
which is whoUy white and yellow, is a picture of
St Edward, King and Confessor, who belongs, in a
special sense, from his connection with Havering-
atte-Bower, to Homchurch and its neighbourhood.
The arms in the shields are those of Deincourt and
the window, no doubt, commemorates the foundation
of a chantry by a member of that family at Hom-
church. We may safely assume that the chantry
altar stood beneath the window and that the east
end of the aisle was partitioned off by screens to
form a chantry chapel, a very common custom,
and, in most cases, a reasonable one, for such an
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Ill] THE DECORATED STYLE 61
arrangement usually means that the founder of the
chantry has built, or rebuilt, the aisle at his own
expense.
A kind of treatment, which may, perhaps, be
called the triptychy appears later in the Decorated
period in England, although it is found much earlier
on the continent The principal subject, under a
great csmopy, occupies the three centre lights and
smaller pictures, under canopies, are in the side-
lights. The pinnacles of the canopies are on coloured
grounds and, above them, is a white and yellow back-
ground reaching up to the tracery, the glass in which
is coloured.
Jesse windows — ^which may be said to be the
earliest form of design extending over the whole
window — ^in this style have their main lights bordered
and, running over the white and yellow patterns with
which they are filled, and often extending to the
tracery, is the vine, from which, at intervals, spring
branches arranged to fi*ame the oval panels in which
are the figures of the genealogical chart
Decorated wheel windows — a type which de-
veloped from the earlier Rose windows, from which
also it seems likely that the idea of elaborate tracery
in the heads of lancets arose — usually contain one
or more pictures or shields of arms in their centre
or eye, while the radiating lights, or spokes of the
wheel, contain patterns on coloured grounds with or
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62 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
without borders. The east- window at Merton College,
Oxford, is of this sort, the eye being filled with heraldry
and ornamental patterns on a coloured ground.
As time went on and the methods used in glass
manufEtcture slowly improved, the texture and char-
acter of the glass changed. It became thinner and
its surface more regular, a change which was not
wholly advantageous, for it is certain that much of
the brilliance of very old glass is due to the varied
angles, caused by unevenness of surface, at which
light is transmitted through it To improvements
in manufacture also were, probably, due the gradual
reduction in thickness of the coat of colour on ruby
glass. Unlike other glass colours, ruby has always
been applied as a surface colour, flashed on — ^as the
phrase goes — to the glass, and the thickness of the
coat of colour is found, by comparison of ruby glass
of difierent periods, to vary as much as ^ of an inch
in the Early English period as against ^ of an inch
in the 16th century. The streakiness, too, a marked
feature of very early ruby glass, tends to disappear
during the Decorated period and other colours tend
to vary. In particular, although there is a great
deal of very dark-blue Decorated glass — dark, that
is, on close inspection, though brilliant enough when
viewed from a distance and in a mass — ^a very
beautiful light-blue, light-violet, cobalt, one might
approximately call it, came into use in this period.
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Ill] THE DECORATED STYLE 63
A good example of this light-blue is the border
round the little picture of Our Lady and the Divine
Child in our frontispiece and of a dark-blue, of
Decorated style, in the diapered backgrounds to some
of the figures in the Sheering tracery.
Pot-metal yellow gets deeper in tone, passing,
sometimes, through orange to a green-brown yellow
— not always quite pleasant to the eye when seen
in a lump, as witness the fragmentary canopies at
North Weald churcL
Another change of this sort to note in the Deco-
rated period is the tendency of white glass towards a
slight green tone, the result, to some extent, of its
being thinner. White glass, too, definitely took the
place of the pink, sometimes brown, of the Early
English style for flesh tints. Its coldness was re-
lieved by applying yellow stain for the hair and
beards of figures, and when white was used for
draperies, the surfece was varied and warmed by
yellow edgings, ornamental bands or fioral orna-
ments, as in the mitre and chasuble of the little
figure of St Edmund of Canterbury at Abbess
Roding.
The white quarries in which the coloured figures
and panels were set, call for a word. These were
either all of one uniform lozenge shape and size or
of such varied shapes and sizes as the geometrical
patterns into which they were formed determined.
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64 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
Of the geometrical type with their running trellis
patterns we have already spoken. As to the lozenge
quarries, the designs on them, outlined with brown
enamel, and, after 1410 or thereabouts, usually
heightened with yellow stain, varied extensively.
Sometimes they were floral designs, like the maple-
leaf at Roydon, or birds, as the bird playing on bells
in Upper Hardres church, Kent, or feimily badges,
monograms of benefetctors and such-like. Some,
too, had bands on the upper sides, either plain or
patterned and with or without yellow stain. Early
in the style we find quarry designs set off by cross-
hatching on the ground behind them as in the Early
English period (see the Westwell window), but this
plan was gradually replaced by the use of the yeUow
stain for shading and obtaining contrasts.
Diapering of this period invites notice. A diaper
is a flat pattern on a white or coloured ground, and
diapering was used extensively in all the decorative
arts and crafts during the Middle Ages. As limited
to painted glass — ^pot-metal work — the diaper always
consists of brown enamel applied to the glass in one
of two ways. The earlier plan, which prevailed until
late in the Decorated period, was to cover the glass
with a fairly thick layer of brown enamel, and then,
with a stick, knife or other convenient instrument,
remove so much of the enamel as was necessary to
form the patterh. In this way ornamental borders
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THE DECORATED STYLE
65
to garments were picked out, and background pat-
terns, like that immediately behind the figures in the
St Edmund, Bp and C. (Abbess Boding)
frontispiece, were formed. The other, and later,
method, which has, since its introduction, been used
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66 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH.
side by side with the earlier one, as convenience
might dictate, is simply to paint with a brush, in
the ordinary way, the (Uaper pattern in outline. It
is obvious that either plan has advantage over the
other for certain kinds of work, and it is sometimes
hard to tell by which method a diaper has been
applied Particularly is this so in the case of large
leaf patterns, such as those on the ruby and blue
grounds behind the figures at Sheering.
A typical feature of the Decorated style is the
pose of the figures : they are simple and severe in
drawing, the outlines becoming thinner as the style
progresses, their draperies are loose, wide and flow-
ing, and they are, usually, in constrained positions,
seeming to rest on one leg. A good example is the
St Edward at Stapleford Abbots. In early Deco-
rated work facial features are treated much as in
the Early English period : the iris of the eye is not
distinguished from the pupil and the mouth consists
of three curved dashes side by side, as in the heads
of Our Lady at Kingsdown and All Saints' church,
Stamford. Later on, however, the drawing of features
became more natural : first, as in a head at Worfield
church, Shropshire, and in another in the south aisle
of the choir at York cathedral (both illustrated by
Winston), the lips were drawn in outline, and, sub-
sequently, we find both lips and the iris indicated,
a development very well shewn in the tracery figures
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THE DECORATED STYLE
67
at Sheering. No very great change from the pre-
ceding style in the painting of hair is noticeable,
Head of Our Lady (Eingsdown)
although men's hair and beards get more flowing
as the style advances, while women's hair remains
5—2
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68 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
long and smooth and that of angels is usually drawn
in thick, crisp curls. Decorated borders must not
be forgotten. The most common type is a yellow
running stalk and leaf on a coloured ground : some-
times — as at Merton CoUege, where the stalk is green
on a ruby ground — the stalk and leaf are of different
colours. A less usual border is made up of small
figures and canopies, one above another, such as we
see in the nave of York cathedral Variety is some-
times given to the running floral border by little
grotesque creatures climbing up the stalk or sitting
on the branches. Heraldry often supplied material
for borders — small shields of arms, merchants' marks
or badges. The fragments of border in the west,
formerly in the east, window at Netteswell church,
Essex — ostrich feathers, alternately blue and ruby,
stuck through scrolls — are remains of a heraldic border
which probably had some reference to Thomas of
Woodstock, Earl of Gloucester and Essex, fifth son
of Edward III, who generally lived at Pleshy Castle,
some ten miles from NettesweU. These borders,
which sometimes had an inner margin of white glass,
and always an outer one next the stone, usually, as
in the window at Hornchurch, and the west window
at Snodland, Kent, ran round the head of the light,
following the line of the foils, which often enclosed
a rose, marguerite or other small fiowen If there
were a border along the bottom of the window —
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in] THE DECORATED STYLE 69
and often there was not, for the space would be
taken up by the base of a figure-stand or by a
lettered scroll — it would be of a diflerent pattern,
usually large squares containing conventional floral
ornaments stained yellow on a white ground alter-
nating with oblong pieces of coloured glass. The
Merton College window and the frontispiece illus-
trate this practice.
The 14th and 16th centuries saw the heyday of
heraldry ; it was then very real, both as science and
art, and, as a result of such reality, heraldic repre-
sentations had then a simplicity and dignity which
those of subsequent centuries lacked. In the 14th
century we see no crests, elaborate mantlings or
grotesquely shaped shields, only shields of the heater
type, upon which were painted, in plain, bold style,
a single coat of arms, a husband's arms impaling
those of his wife, or at most, and very rarely, two
or three quarterings. The two shields in the Horn-
church window are good types, though these are
painted only in brown enamel and yellow, the shield
at Westonbirt church, Gloucestershire, is another,
and yet others are the four shields in a window of
the north aisle of the nave at St Albans Abbey,
containing the arms of Edward III, Edward the Black
Prince, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and John of Gaunt;
in North Ockendon church the arms of England
(ancient), Warrenne, Pointz and Beauchamp, and at
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70 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
Arkesden church Fitzalan quartering Warrenne for
Thomas Fitzalan or Arundel, successively Bishop of
Ely, Archbishop of York, and, in 1396, Archbishop
of Canterbury.
As guides to the subjects represented, figures
often bore scrolls inscribed with names — 8c8: Petrus,
8c8 Edva/rdvs, M{ary) Cleophe and so forth — ^and,
sometimes, the names would be written round the
outer edge of a saint's nimbus or, oftener, on a broad
scroll beneath his feet At times too, such scrolls
would be drawn across the sides of canopies and
would bear verses from the Psalter, as in the picture
of St Edmund at Abbess Roding. Inscriptions up to
about 1340 were in Lombardic characters, a variation
of Roman letters, but, after that time, they are
usually in Gothic or black letter, although Lombardic
letters continued in use for a long time. Owing to
the fact that Roman letters, in the long run, again
came into use in Europe and so continued to the
present day, it has come about that most people
find it easier to read a pre-fourteenth century in-
scription than one of the two following centuries.
The simplest and earliest form of decoration in
tracery lights was the small coloured circlet enclosing
an ornament — such as a rose — painted in outline
with brown enamel on white glass. This style, in its
richest and most elaborate form, is found in the
large foiled circles of early Decorated tracery. In
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Ill] THE DECORATED STYLE 71
such an example the centre of the light is filled with
a shield of arms or a complicated floral design in
colour, which touches the cusps, while within the
foils are scroll-like leaves in outline, heightened with
yellow on white glass. A very beautiful example of
such a circular ornament is the design in the west
window at Netteswell, which was, no doubt, taken
from a tracery-light The centre is light olive, deli-
cately diapered and the narrow outer border is
probably meant to be ruby, but each of its four
parts are of different tints of bluish and reddish
purple, an interesting result, it may be surmised,
of defective firing of the glass. Nevertheless the
effect is very good As Decorated tracery progressed,
its openings got higher and gave opportunity for
figure-subjects which were, usually, white and yellow
on coloured grounds and sometimes under canopies.
The Sheering window may again be referred to for
an unspoilt example of a piece of such figure-tracery
and as shewing, too, the most usual kind of border
for tracery-lights — the beaded type with an outer
margin of white glass.
The bonnet-like crown of the Early English period
grew, in the Decorated style, into the familiar circlet
with floral decorations, such as that on the head of
Our Lady at Kingsdown, and this, as the style ad-
vanced, passed into the more elaborate types seen
on the heads of the two central throned figures at
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72 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
Sheering. Similarly, the low-triangular episcopal
mitre, like those worn by St Birinus and his conse-
crator Pope St Honorius in the Early English glass
at Dorchester church, Oxfordshire, became, in later
Decorated work, the higher and rounder shape worn
by St Edmund at Abbess Roding.
CHAPTER IV
THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE (1377—1547)
Coloured glass of the Perpendicular period, like
the stone-work in which it was set, grew, by a
perfectly natural process, from the style which
preceded it. As Decorated tracery, having attained,
in its flowing lines, such flexibility of appearance as
to border on weakness, called for a corrective — ^found
in the gradual verticalising of its principal lines — so
painted glass of the same period passed through a
similar phase. The flowing vine and ivy tendrils,
and the natural leaves and berries of the Decorated
period, which harmonised so well with their con-
temporary architecture, would have struck a dis-
cordant note if set in the midst of the severe lines
of Perpendicular tracery. So we find that, as the 14th
century passed into the 15th, the regular and hard
lines of lozenge-shaped quarries took the place of the
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 73
flowing geometrical patterns of the trellis windows,
and the natural leaves of ash, maple, ivy and so
forth, made way for conventional floral ornaments.
This, be it noted, was quite legitimate develop-
ment — ^a merely corrective process called for by a
tendency to excess of flexibility — ^and, in no sense,
a going-back upon, or departure from, the essential
principles of Gothic art.
This strengthening tendency in design was ac-
companied by a gradual change in colour and
technique : tints became softer and less intense, and
fecial outlines and features were drawn with finer
lines and greater finish. The practice, begun, as we
have seen, in the Decorated period, of indicating the
iris of the eye as distinct from the pupil and of
modelling both lips by fine wavy lines, became the
rule. Great attention, too, was paid to shading of
the jEewje, which was done by extremely fine hair-like
lines of a wavy character, much like the shading
used for indicating mountains and water in a steel-
engraved map.
The reduction in tone of coloured Perpendicular
glass was not wholly, nor perhaps so much due to
actual lightening of colour in the process of manu-
facture, as to greater breadth of treatment and an
increase in the proportion of white glass.
Speaking generally, coloured glass was used in
larger pieces than in the preceding styles, a &ct
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74
ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS
[CH.
which, even alone^ would effect an apparent reduc-
tion in intensity of colour. Added to this, there was
Perpendicular Quarry
a decided and progressive increase in the use of
yellow stain in the white glass : we no longer find.
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THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE
75
as we did in the Decorated period, pot-metal colours
used in the canopies, except for the little windows in
Ctqu/ti
Vustl
Perpendicular Quarry
towers and groining and backgrounds of canopies,
but all is stained yellow. The rectangular quarries,
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76 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
too, in which the coloured pictures — figures and
canopies or panels — ^are set, have more yellow than
before ; they are often edged with yellow and the
little designs painted on them — flowers, birds, mono-
grams, badges or what not — ^are sometimes entirely
stained, instead of being merely shaded, with yellow.
In connection with colour, it is to be noted that
the Perpendicular period saw the full development
of a practice which had been introduced early in the
14th century (though, for a long time, little used),
whereby the glass-painter's list of colours was greatly
increased — namely, the making of pot-metal glass in
two layers of different colours. This was eflTected by
dipping the blow-pipe into glass, first of one colour
and then of another, the resulting bubble being,
of course, one colour within and another without
When opened out the bubble became a double sheet
of one colour imposed on the other. By this process
many tints of green could be got by combining
different shades of blue and yellow, a long range
of purples, from deep violet to pink, would result
from combinations of reds and blues of varied in-
tensity, and different degrees of orange could be got
by coating red with yellow. The glass produced by
this plan of increasing colour-range in pot-metal
work is called by the French verve dovbUj and it
is to France that we must turn for the best examples
of it The central east windows at the church of
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 77
Eymoutiers, near Limoges, which contain many-hued
canopy lights of late 15th century work, are instances
in point, and the fine and elaborate canopy-window,
the gift of Jacques Coeur, Treasurer of France in the
days of Charles VII, at Bourges cathedral is another.
As might be expected, glass-painters were not always
content with two layers in verre doublS, and, in their
eagerness for new tints, they would fuse together into
one sheet five or six layers of different colours. It
seems possible that this practice may have contri-
buted towards the development of the idea of
painting in enamel colours, which became a recog-
nised system in the 16th century.
Another feature, the beginnings of which are to
be found in the Decorated period, developed rapidly
in the early years of the 15th century — the practice
of stipple shading. Such shading — in drapery and
so forth — as had been employed in the earlier styles
had been either smear shading, that is a wash
varying in depth with the degree of opacity required,
of brown enamel, or cross-hatching with the same
pigment. The difference between the new plan, the
stipple and the old one, the smear, was in the
method of application. Instead of a broad wash
applied with the side of the brush, the painter put
in his shadows by continuous dabs with the point
of the tool, so that, really, they were made up of
minute dots running one into the other. Obviously
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78 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
very much finer and wider gradations of tone could
be produced by the stipple than by the smear, and
we can quite understand how the increased use of
stipple shading, combined with greater variatioii in
outline, had much to do with the higher finish and
air of refinement characteristic of Perpendicular
work. Thus, while Perpendicular glass lost in in-
tensity of colour it gained in culture.
At the same time the tendency to warmth of tone
produced by finer shadow gradation and the con-
sequent increase of verisimilitude of subject, were
not without a bad effSect, in the long run, upon
the art of the glass-painter. They led, at last, to
forgetfulness of essential limits and of the proper
use of painted windows and to attempts, which led
to the temporary ruin of the art, to paint pictures
on glass in the same way as one paints pictures on
canvas or paper, thus changing the very nature of
a painted window by making it a mere screen upon
which to show pictures instead of a coloured and
decorated medium for the admission of light
The figure avid canopy subject, common in the
Decorated period, may be called the typical style
of Perpendicular times. The constructional features
of the canopies are in accord with contemporary
architecture : the flat-fronted Decorated canopy
makes way for the Perpendicular one with pro-
jecting fi-ont ; and, while the canopies of this style
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 79
are of the same general character as those of the
Decorated period, they are more varied in form and
never run to the high pointed spire characteristic
of the Decorated type. A noticeable point with
regard to Perpendicular canopies is that, when there
is one figure only in a main light, the whole space,
except that covered by the figure, is taken up by the
canopy, the pillars supporting it and the pedestal
upon which the figure stands. A good idea of this
sort of arrangement may be got from a study of two
of the main lights of an aisle window at Fairford.
This window contains figures of the four great
Doctors of the Church, SS. Jerome, Gregory the
Great, Ambrose and Augustine of Hippo, the two
selected for study being SS. Ambrose and Augustine.
The whole surface of each light is white glass
heightened with yellow stain, except the groining
of one of the canopies and the curtains behind the
figures, all of which are red, and the copes (blue)
and the tunicles (green) of the figures. The
canopies, it will be noticed, which reach to the top
of the lights and have pendants, difier in detail :
that over St Ambrose is three-sided and more
elaborate than St Augustine's, which is two-sided
and broader in treatment of detail than its fellow.
The figures, like all those in the aisle windows at
Fairford, stand on pedestals, three-sided, decorated
with foliage work about the stems and bearing.
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80 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
round the base, the name of the saint represented
In the tracery lights are figures of St Apollonia, St
James and an angeL
Sometimes Perpendicular canopy subjects have
small figures of donors kneeling in prayer round the
base of the pedestal. A fine example of this is to be
seen at St L6, Normandy, in a lofty Early French
lancet window of four lights which was evidently
reglazed in the 15th century. The canopies, white
and yellow upon coloured grounds, reach to the tops
of the lights and are unusually lofty for Perpendicular
work, a circumstance due to the early character of
the stonework. The two centre figures only are
upon pedestals, the others standing on pavement in
the Decorated style, but they are all alike in that the
pictures below the figures rest upon moulded bases.
Under the first figure is a picture of Our Lady
seated with the Divine Child on her lap, and the
others have figures of donors kneeling upon tes-
selated pavements which form the upper parts of the
moulded bases. Upon the fronts of these bases are
shields of arms, heater-shape, and three other shields^
supported by angels — the centre one, bearing the arms
of France (modem, i.e. three lilies only on a blue field)
— in the spandrels between the heads of the lights.
In windows divided by transoms each tier of lights
is treated separately ; each light has its own figure
and canopy on its pedestal or pavement over a picture
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 81
panel or shield of arms, as the ease may be. Often,
however, each main light of a window — sometimes
very lofty — ^has a series of figures and canopies
one above the other. Such windows are arranged
upon the same general plan as the Decorated hdt
windows, but the canopies are loftier and the figures
stand on pedestals, which grow, as it were, out of the
canopy-tops.
In the Sainte Chapelle at Riom, in Auvergne,
are seven fine four-light windows which illustrate
this type. In one pair of lights we see the Apostles,
with scrolls bearing sentences from the Creed (as at
Fairford), standing on pedestals in front of curtains
hanging in loops. In the canopy-tops are small
niches, containing figures, probably of donors,
which inin upwards into another tier of pedestals,
figures and canopies, and so on to the tops of the
lights. Below the Apostles are canopies over figures
of saints on pedestals, each of whom is presenting
a kneeling figure — ^a donor, no doubt — ^to Our Lord,
who is seated oh His mother's knee under the first
of the row of canopies. In this style, which is less
conunon in the later years of the Perpendicular
period than in its beginning, we sometimes find
coloured picture-panels without canopies or pedes-
tals, divided horizontally by panelled tabernacle work.
In all these— figures and canopies and panelled
arrangements — the tracery lights shew either small
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82 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh. iv
figures of saints, sometimes under canopies like many
of those in the Fairford windows, or symbols of the
Evangelists as at Netteswell, or shields of donors'
arms or those of the emperor, a king, or other
eminent person of the day. A favourite tracery
filling was an angel, perhaps playing on a musical
instrument, or in an attitude of adoration, or maybe
supporting a shield of arms.
On the continent, especially in Germany, Switzer-
land and Northern Italy, round quarries, set close
together in rows, are, at this period, often found in
lieu of rectangular quarries, as backgrounds for
figures, and canopies and panels. The round quar-
ries are, at first, about four inches in diameter with
the bull's eye very well defined and with narrow rims.
Afterwards they got larger, ultimately as wide as six
inches, and the bull's eye became hardly noticeable.
The earlier type made a simple and effective
window, especially, as was usually the case, when
the surface was broken by little stars in circles
made by inserting coloured glass in some of the
interstices between the quarries. Bound glass win-
dows were bordered, the early ones with coloured
designs and the later mostly with white and yellow
only. Excellent examples of round glass are to
be seen in the church of St Mary of the Capitol,
Cologne, where there are several three-lighted
windows with coloured subjects set in round quarriea
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Symbol of St Mark (Netteswell)
6^2
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84 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
Ill some, the coloured subject is in the centre
light only, while in others it extends to the side
lights.
A principal note of the Perpendicular period is
variety in arrangement Sometimes a centre light
has a larger picture — ^figure and canopy or panel —
than the other lights, sometimes such a central
subject stands alone in the midst of a window
otherwise made up entirely of white and yellow
glass, or, as at West Wickham church, Kent, we see
a single figure on a bracket without either canopy
or background other than the white and yellow
quarries. Towards the end of the style, a single
subject, extended over the whole window and with-
out canopy or architectural work, is often found.
In other cases, the lower lights comprise several
distinct subjects or figures, all under one large
canopy, as in the east window of Winchester cathe-
dral — ^an early example. A variation of the single
figure on a bracket type is the design, often met
with, of Our Lord on the Cross in a centre light
with Our Lady and St John, standing on brackets
in the adjoining lights, on either side.
We find, too, as in the preceding styles, windows
wholly of white and yellow pattern glass except for
the borders and variously — more usually, perhaps,
circular — shaped panels containing shields of arms,
crests, badges, or monograms often enclosed by a
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 86
wreath, all of which are coloured A fine, bold example
of such a design, a crest within a wreath, is to be
seen in the staircase-window at No. 3 Crosby Square,
Bishopsgate, an old house now, and for many years
past divided into offices, but formerly residential
The crest is a hawk jessed and belled painted in
brown and yellow on white glass, within a green and
ruby foliaged wreath.
A peculiarity of the later Perpendicular wheel-
windows is the concentration of the coloured glass
in circular bands towards the outer edge of the
window and in the eye, leaving a broad circle of
white glass between the two masses of colour.
The Jesse design of the earlier part of the
Perpendicular period (of which the east windows at
Gloucester cathedral and Winchester College chapel
are good examples) differs little from the Decorated
type. The figures, sometimes standing and at others
seated, usually bear their symbols and have their
names on scrolls. The vine runs over the whole
window and its leaves are white and yellow, though
warmth is given, in some instances, by colouring
the ovals and in others by making the ground of
the lights red and blue alternately. In the later
examples the vine is more branched and has more
leaves, the ground is usually coloured and the figures
either stand on the branches or issue, as demi-
figures, from large blossoms. The colouring of the
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86 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH.
leaves, too, is more varied, being often in pot-metal
colour. Sometimes the vine is spread only over the
two or three centre lights leaving the side-lights for
other subjects.
An almost perfect "Jesse," which is dated
Mcocccxxxiii, is in the chancel window at Uan-
rhaiadr, Denbighshire. This window has features
both of the earlier and later types. The figures in
the centre light are full-length and standing, while
those in the side-lights are all demi-figures issuing
from blossoms. On the whole, however, the work
points to a late date in the Perpendicular period,
and there seems little reason for the suggestion,
which has been made, that the date on the glass is
incorrect It is true that the costumes of the
figures are earlier than the days of Henry VIII,
but this may well be accounted for upon the sup-
position that, either the painter copied from earlier
sources or worked in the style in which he was
brought up. Changes in style are slow, and when
we remember the predominantly Gk>thic character
of the Fairford glass and that (though in a less
degree) in King's College chapel, Cambridge — the
one executed only about thirty years earlier than
the date given for the Llanrhaiadr window and the
other almost contemporary with it — ^we need not
reject 1533 as the date for this Jesse on the ground
of a difference between the costume of the figures
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 87
in the glass and that of folk of Tudor times. A
curious circumstance, which may have a bearing
upon the question as to the true date of this glass,
is that the original inscription upon the scroll over
the head of King David — "Orate pro bono statu
Roberti Jonnes, clerici qui hoc lumen vitrari fecit'* —
which, upon close inspection, can be made out, has
been altered to " Misericordias Domini in setemum
cantabo. R J." The explanation, probably, is that
the same Robert Jones — ^perhaps he was the parson
of Llanrhaiadr — who set up the window in 1533 and
who caused the erased inscription to be written, in
after years, most likely in the days of Edward VI,
out of deference to the then prevailing notions, had
the inscription altered to the form in which it is
to-day and added thereto his initials — " R J." Such
alteration of inscriptions on sepulchral monuments,
brasses especially, was not at all uncommon in the
troublous days of Edward VI, although it is believed
that this Llanrhaiadr example is a unique instance
of erasure of an inscription on glass and the writing
of another in its place. When it was desired to
change an inscription on glass, the piece of glass
itself would, as a rule, be taken out of its setting
and another piece inserted.
We have refeiTcd to the practice of placing
figures of donors in painted windows. The origin
of this custom seems to have been two-fold, first to
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88 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh. iv
indicate the personal devotion of the giver of the
window, and secondly by calling him to the recol-
lection of others, to claim a place in their prayers,
for his good estate, if alive, and for his soul's weal
were he dead The same idea, no doubt, prompted
the painting of coat-armour in church windows, for
we find, in early window heraldry, that the arms
depicted were always those of benefactors to the
church or of very high folk — ^the king or a great
local lord — whose arms, being well-known, might
serve to indicate a date. As the 15th century went
on, the tendency was to increase the size and im-
portance of the figures of donors. This we may see
by comparing the little donors in the base of a
Decorated window with, say, the large and very
beautiful figures in the early 15th century Rose-
window in the north transept of Le Mans cathedral
There are seven principal figures of donors at Le
Mans, all of persons contemporary with the building
of the north transept and most of them known to
have contributed largely to its cost. They represent
Louis II of Anjou, King of Sicily and Count of
Maine, who died in 1417, his wife Yolande of
Aragon, his mother Mary of Brittany, and his son
Louis III of Anjou, or, possibly, his second son, " the
good king Ren6 " ; Louis, the Bastard of Maine ;
Peter of Savoisy, Bishop of Le Mans (1385—1398) ;
and Cardinal Filastre, Cathedral Dean of Rheims
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Louis II of Anjou (Le Mans)
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90 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
(1411 — 1428), a great lover of art and letters and
a generous contributor to the cathedral of Le Mans.
Besides these are figures of unknown canons, donors,
no doubt
This window at Le Mans, the stonework of which
is a fine specimen of Flamboyant architecture, is in
two main divisions — ^a great rose above and long
lancets below, the two connected by elaborate flame-
like tracery. In the eye of the rose are symbols
of the four Evangelists — the winged man, the winged
lion, the winged ox and the eagle, in its upper part
is the coronation of Our Lady in Heaven and, in the
lower half, the Last Judgment The rose is com-
pleted by the orders of the celestial Hierarchy,
angels waving censers or playing on musical in-
struments and so forth. In the lancets are the
thirteen Apostles, each holding his proper symbol
and, except St Paul, with a scroll inscribed with
a sentence of the Creed. Their canopies, some of
which have small figures of saints round their tops,
are three-sided with pendants. Below the Apostles
are saints — SS. Louis IX, Ren^ and an unknown
bishop — ^and the donors to whom we have re-
ferred.
This immense window, which contains 124 com-
partments, illustrates three principal characteristics
of the Perpendicular style — ^reduction of intensity,
as compared with Decorated work, in the coloured
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 91
parts, increased use of white and yellow glass and
elaboration of pattern work. Indeed, it may be said
to be a white and yellow window heightened with
colour ; for colour is, in the main, confined to parts
of the drapery, the curtain backgrounds of the
figures, the nimbi and smaller fillings-in of the
tracery.
A good idea of the preponderance of white and
yellow glass in Perpendicular work may be got from
the panel of Louis II of Anjou, which we illustrate.
All is white and yellow except the curtain, which
is green with violet medallions, its top border and
side doublings being white and yellow, the sword-
scabbard, which is red, and the field upon which
the Angevin fleurs-de-lis are painted, which is, of
course, blue.
These figures of donors are of great interest, for,
apart from the feet that they are thought by some
to be portraits — a doubtful supposition — they illus-
trate the history of France in the 15th century,
contemporary costume and, by the heraldry — fine,
bold designs — on shield and surcoat, they shew the
alliances of the great French houses of those days.
Observe that none of these figures are identified by
their names : their coats-of-arms were sufficient for
that purpose in the 15th century, for everybody
understood heraldry.
We notice a novel use of the yellow stain in this
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92 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
window — for touching up the high-lights of the face,
such as the tip of the nose, the chin and the eye-
brows. Finish is shewn principaUy in the com-
paratively minute diaper work in the head-dresses
of the female figures, in the crowns, in the curtain
patterns, and in the words of the prayers inscribed
in the open books.
It is to the Perpendicular period that we must
look for the earliest existing examples of painted
glass in dwelling-houses and other secular buildings,
for, although there can be no doubt but that painted
windows were to be found in domestic buildings long
before that time, and, probably, from the earliest
period to which painting on glass can be referred,
there are few or no remains older than the latter
part of the 14th century to be seen to-day. Evidence
of domestic use of painted windows in the reign of
Edward III may be found in Chaucer's writings.
In the " Book of the Duchesse," speaking of his own
house, he says (line 321) :
"Sooth to seyn, my chambre was
Fill wel depeynted and with glas
Were al the windowes wel y-glased,
Fill clere, and nat an hole y-crased,
That to beholde hit was gret joye.
For hooly al the stone of Troye
Was in the glasing y-wroght thus."
We may, therefore, safely assume that picture
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 93
windows were to be found, in plenty, in the houses
of well-to-do folk in mid- 14th century days, and, if
so, that they had long been common in the castles
of the greater nobility and in the guild-halls of
London and other towns. Figures representing
ancestoi-s or historical personages, such as the nine
— ^two intended for Earls of Mercia and seven for
Earls of Chester — ^in 14th century armour, originally
at Brereton Hall, Cheshire, and afterwards removed
to Aston Hall, Birmingham (although these par-
ticular figures were not painted until the 16th
century), or those formerly at Warwick Castle and
Arundel Castle, would be set up in the great hall
of a castle or manor-house, while smaller figures
of Our Lady and the Saints, under canopies or in
panels, would be placed in the windows of chapels or
oratories.
Later in the style we fijid that heraldry has
largely taken the place of figures for the windows
of secular buildings, although there are many re-
corded instances of figure subjects of late date, such
as those of the Fettiplace family at Childrey, Berks.,
set up in 1526. The usual style of heraldic glazing
for the great hall of a manor-house was an adapta-
tion of the hdt system of canopies. A large, boldly
designed shield, with helmet, crest and mantling,
and, if appropriate, supporters and cr9wn or coronet,
was set in the centre of each lancet, forming a belt
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94 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch. iv
across the window. All the heraldry was properly
coloured and the white and yellow backgrounds
usuaUy consisted of alternate diagonal rows of
rectangular quarries decorated with some small
device — a family badge, monogram of husband and
wife, or such-like — ^and white glass on which was
painted the family motto. Our illustration — ^the
arms of Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou
in the hall at Ockholt, Berks.— is a good example,
painted about 1450, of this kind of domestic painted
Towards the end of the reign of Henry VI shields
became very varied in shape, and they usually shew
the lance-rest, a piece cut out of the dexter side of
the shield just below its top comer. The old plain
shield, the widened heater shape, was, however,
always in use, and offcen shields, when without
helmet and crest, were encircled by wreaths, made
of leaves, an entwined branch, with foliage or a
scroll turned round a stick.
An illustration of the system upon which quarry-
ornaments were designed is afforded by some quarries
at Faulkbourne HaU, near Witham. They are
decorated with a design made up of two family
badges — the Stafford knot and the black-laced belt
of Fortescue — and may be assumed to commemorate
the marriage, probably about 1520, of Henry For-
tescue, then lord of the manor of Faulkbourne, with
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Arms of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou (Ookholt)
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96 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
Elisabeth Stafford. This old house, too, can shew
an unusual use of painted glass, but one quite in the
spirit of the Middle Ages, which deemed nothing too
lowly for decoration. The upper part of a large
window in the kitchen shews quarries upon which
are painted, in brown enamel heightened with yellow,
cooking utensils and various articles of food.
One may wonder what became of all the painted
glass, of which there must have been an enormous
quantity, in the monastic houses after the Dissolu-
tion in Tudor days. In the first place, no doubt, the
old windows were, in most cases, taken down before
the destruction of the buildings and sold ; but how
did the purchasers dispose of them ? The price paid
for the old stuff was usually absurdly low, as we
know from several entries in the surveys of the
religious houses made by the officials of the Court
of Augmentations. One instance may suffice : two
windows of the abbey of Kirkby Belers, Leicester-
shire, containing 160 square feet of glass, which
would, probably, have cost to make, in the 15th
century, not less than £160 (present-day currency),
was sold for £1 6«. Sd. (equal to £13 6«. 8d of our
day), and 120 feet of painted glass in the choir
fetched £1. As there is very little old glass in
England to-day which can reasonably be supposed
to have come from the dissolved religious houses,
we can only assume that the purchasers exported
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 97
it to the continent If this assumption be correct,
the interesting question arises as to how far the
sudden throwing upon the continental market of
so vast a quantity of painted glass may have been
responsible for the state of things in France described
by Bernard Palissy, himself a glass-painter. He tells
us that, in the later years of the 16th century, painted
glass was so little esteemed in France that it was
hawked about the country by dealers in old clothes
and such like refuse. In any event, it is difficult to
account, otherwise, for the almost total disappearance
of the painted windows removed from the churches,
chapter-houses and other parts of old English monas-
tic houses after their dissolution.
Although throughout the Middle Ages there were
native glass-painters in England — probably as many
as of any other craft, wood-carvers, wall-painters,
or what not — ^yet it seems likely that most of the
designs and patterns used by English artists came
from the continent. We see in English village
churches general designs similar to, and often even
patterns in diapers, borders and quarry ornaments
identical with those found in continental cathedrals.
For example, the large floral pattern behind St Peter
in the north transept window at Le Mans cathedral
is the same as that used for the backgrounds of all
the figures in the tracery at Sheering. It would be
strange, indeed, when we consider the close relationship
B. 7
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98 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH.
which existed between the British Isles and the
mainland all through the Middle Ages — the con-
stant passing to and fro of merchant, craftsman and
ecclesiastic, bringing, not only the news of the day,
but French and German songs and music, archi-
tectural ideas, fashions in clothes and illuminated
books — strange it would be if notions, and even
identical patterns, prevalent on the continent in
the matter of painted glass had not come over with
the rest
Such a copying of continental methods and
designs had always been, but, as the Perpendicular
period neared its end, considerable numbers of
foreign glass-painters, mainly Flemish, came over
to, and settled in, England. They were encouraged
by Henry VII and his son Henry VIII, and there
can be little doubt but that the glass-painters called,
in contemporary documents, "the king's painters,"
were, though not all of them Flemings, associated
together under Flemish direction and that they used
Flemish, German or Dutch designs in their work.
While upon the subject of foreign designs, we
may say a word or two with regard to that much
discussed piece of glass-painting — the east window
at St Margaret's church, Westminster. It represents
tJie Crvxdfixian of Ov/r Lord, with the two thieves
on either side. Above are angels holding the in-
struments of the Passion, and, in the side-lights, are
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 99
kneeling figures the identity of which is, by no
means, clear, although they are commonly said to
be Henry VH and his Queen, Elizabeth of York.
Above the male kneeling figure is St George and
over the saint is a red rose with a white one in
pretence upon it, while above the lady we see St
Catherine and the arms of Aragon — ^a golden pome-
granate in a green field.
The story usually told is that this window was
intended as a present from the magistrates of Dort
to Henry VH, and that pictures of that king and
of his queen were sent to Dort for the purpose of
securing accuracy in the kneeling figures ; that, before
the window was finished, Henry VH died, and, when
it arrived in England, it was given, or sold, by
Henry VHI to the canons of Waltham Holy Cross,
who placed it in their church. After the Disso-
lution, the story goes on to say, the window was
removed by the king to New Hall, near Boreham,
and that, after divers vicissitudes, it was ultimately
purchased by the parishioners of St Margaret's,
Westminster.
Clearly, as the window stands, the kneeling
figures cannot be meant for Henry VII and Eliza-
beth of York. The lady might be, and probably
is, Catherine of Aragon with her patroness St
Catherine and her paternal coat-of-arms. As to the
male figure, the most likely supposition seems to be
7—2
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100 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
that it is intended for Henry VIIL Some have
suggested Prince Arthur, his brother, Catherine's
first husband, but it is hardly likely that Henry
VIII would have set up the window in his chapel
at New Hall — a favourite residence of his — had this
been so. Perhaps the true tale may be that the
window was, originally, intended to contain figures
of Henry VII and Elizabeth, but that the plan was,
after that king's death, altered by the substitution
for them of Henry VIII and Catherine ; or, again,
even a more Ukely story seems to be that the window
is not the one intended by the Dort folk for Henry
VII, but another window altogether, simply a gift to
the canons at Waltham Abbey by Henry VIII, who,
in his early days, was a constant visitor there. The
probability of this last suggestion is increased by
the fact that the window is distinctly late in style,
highly developed as to its light and shade, and may
well have been painted about 1525.
A noteworthy feature of Perpendicular work is
the growth of naturalism in landscape backgrounds
of picture panels. In early examples such scenes
are mostly painted on white glass heightened with
yellow, the sky being pot-metal blue, or red and
blue alternately and often diapered. Later on,
distances are more naturally drawn on light blue
glass and carefully shaded with yellow, while the
sky, which is shaded to suggest clouds, is often
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IV] THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE 101
dark blue above and light blue below. A similar
tendency appears in the drawing of figures — they
are rather short than tall, perhaps the result of
putting them under canopies — which have lost the
constrained attitudes of the Decorated period and
assume an easy and natural pose.
Borders round white and yellow quarries are, in
the earlier years of the style, much the same as
those of the Decorated period, usually alternate
pieces of white and yellow and coloured glass with
designs on them in brown enamel, but as time went
on. Perpendicular borders got narrower, and, in very
late examples, there are none.
Lettering •was very much in evidence in Per-
pendicular work, long explanatory extracts from
the Vulgate, or, oftener, the Biblia Pauperum,
being frequently written on panels above or
below a picture. Examples are the two side west
end windows at Fairford. Small letters are still
black-letter, but capitals are Lombardic and are
sometimes stained yellow and cross-hatched with
small leaves in them— a tendency towards illumina-
tion.
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102 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
CHAPTER V
RENAISSANCE (1547—1603)
Although we have taken the middle of the 16th
century as the date for commencement of the Renais-
sance period, we must not forget that, even from the
beginning of the second half of the 15th century on
the continent, though not until later in England, the
influence of classical models can be traced in archi-
tecture and its auxiliary crafts. In glass-painting
we have prospective signs of change in that tendency
to naturalism which we noticed in Perpendicular
figure drawing, in the introduction of classical details
in the canopies of the later part of the period —
e.g. in the windows at King's College, Cambridge, in
the more exact drawing and shading of landscapes
and in the lights and shades of drapery. But, so
long as glass-painters worked along the old Gothic
lines — using pot-metal colours, yellow stain and
brown enamel only — these tendencies were not
overpoweringly apparent, and it is a fact that the
closing years of the Perpendicular period, the first
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V] RENAISSANCE 103
half of the 16th century, saw the perfection, so far
as breadth, harmony and contrast of colour and the
play of light and shade are concerned, of the art of
glass-painting. The painter on glass had, as far as
we can see to-day, attained to his highest plane by
about the year 1535, after which his work began
to lose effectiveness through his fruitless attempt
to carry contrasts of light and shade beyond all
reasonable limits by the use of deeper, and ever
deeper, masses of brown enamel. The result was
loss of transparency and an appearance of weight
and opacity. It is, of course, impossible to say how
the art would have developed had the old system
of work been adhered to and had the glass-painter
resisted the temptation to over-do contrasting effects.
What actually happened was that, just when the
art was losing its essential features — simplicity and
transparency — ^a new force came into play, which, by
encouraging facility of execution, helped the craft
down the road to ruin.
This was. the discovery, or, at least, the coming
into general use — ^for it is very doubtful by whom or
when the discovery was made — of enamel colours,
whereby the painter was, at a stroke, freed from the
limitations imposed upon him by the old pot-metal
system. Instead of the laborious process of cutting
Ms local colours, as it were, out of sheets of pot-
metal, he applied them, like ordinary paint, in a
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104 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
fluid state, with a brush, on white glass. The number
of pieces of glass to form the window being inde-
pendent of the number and size of its coloured parts,
the whole composition could be painted on a single
sheet of glass and much lead-work thereby saved.
All that can, with certainty, be said about the in-
vention of enamel-painting on glass is that it came
into general use about the middle of the 16th century
and succeeded, during the ensuing hundred and
fifty years, in largely superseding the pot-metal
process.
A consequence of the use of enamel colours was
disregard for lead-work as an adjunct to design.
In pot-metal work the lead must follow the outline
of every separate bit of colour, but not necessarily
so in enamel work, for any number of different
colours can be painted on the same piece of glass.
As the enamel painter would naturally wish his
picture to be as little broken up as possible, the
tendency was to use large sheets of glass varying
in shape with the painter's convenience, so that, in
a Renaissance glass-painting, we usually find the lead
lines running all over the composition with very
little regard to the outlines of the subjects depicted,
and, in some cases, the window is made up of large
squares of glass of almost uniform size. In small
pictures, the whole painting would be on a single
sheet of glass.
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V] RENAISSANCE 106
Enamel glass-painting is seen at its best in small
compositions, which, in effect, means that it is
better adapted for dwelling houses than for large
public buildings. The beautiful little circular me-
dallions — scenes from Biblical history or classical
tales, heraldry and such-like — which form a distinct
type of Renaissance glass-painting, illustrate this.
They are painted in various shades of brown running
into red, flesh tints are properly indicated, the yellow
stain is freely used and bits of bright colour are
sometimes here and there introduced The medallion
is surrounded with a border in brown enamel — ^a
running rose branch, perhaps, with heraldic roses,
yellow centred, at intervals. Several such medallions,
one over the other, would be leaded-up in each light,
with a border — architectural or heraldic, and coloured
— and floral fiUings-in, in much the same style, except
for the difference in amount of lead-work, as that
in which the Norman and Early English medallion
windows were arranged.
An interesting, though incomplete, series of such
little pictures may be seen in the south window of
the chapel of the Hospital of Our Lady and St
Thomas of Kent at Great Ilford. As the stonework
of the window is Decorated Gothic, of course these
Renaissance panels are out-of-place where they are,
but they have been there for many years, probably
since the 17th century, and are conveniently placed
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106
ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS
[CH.
for study. Three are figure subjects, Our Lady
visiting St Elizabeth^ Joah slaying Amasa, and
what looks like Lot warned by an angel to leave
Our Lady visiting St Elizabeth
his Iioitse, and the remainder are coats-of-arms, in-
cluding the shield of the Emperor Charles V.
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V]
RENAISSANCE
107
These medallions, one of which is dated 1577, are
unequal in design and finish and that of Our Lady
Joab slaying Amasa (Great Ilford)
and St Elizabeth is much faded. The Joab and
Amasa is, however, a very beautiful piece of work.
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108 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
the flesh shading is highly finished and the land-
scape background — a mediaeval city with water and
mountains — ^is delicately painted and reminiscent of
the old Flemish painters. The heraldry, too, is good,
bold work in the German style, and has a few touches
of red. Special interest attaches to these panels,
because they shew us the sort of picture glass with
which the windows of domestic buildings of the
Renaissance period were glazed, and for which that
style is adapted. As fe.r as it is possible to discover,
the Ilford medallions seem likely to have come either
from Sir John Gresham's house in Lombard Street,
London — ^the sign of The Grasshopper — or from old
Gresham House in Bishopsgate, the London residence
of Sir Thomas Gresham, when it was dismantled prior
to demolition.
Interesting examples of Renaissance domestic
glass in brown and yellow are to be seen at the
Chateau of Chantilly — 44 panels with stories of the
loves of Cupid and Psyche. The composition and
drawing are almost perfect, but they are spoilt by
the arrangement of the lead-work, which, instead
of defining the outlines, tends to confuse them.
These paintings are by a Fleming, Cocxyen, and are
dated 1542.
Is it too much to hope that architects may, in
time, come to adopt this brown and yellow medal-
lion style for the windows of the many Renaissance
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V] RENAISSANCE 109
buildings which are set up to-day in our cities instead
of the meaningless patterns, usually Vart rKmveau,
in lead-work and white glass — the only recommenda-
tion of which is cheapness — which they commonly
affect ?
As confirmatory of our idea about the proper
use of this style, we may refer to the churches of
St Nicholas and St Pantaloon at Troyes in Champagne,
which are entirely glazed with it. Seen upon a large
scale, afi in these churches, the style is distinctly
disappointing and we realise that brown and yellow
alone will not do for the windows of large buildings.
Decided colour in masses is necessary to give strength
to big transparent designs.
As it is obvious, having regard to the religious
troubles of the 16th century, that we cannot expect
to find native glass-painting in England for church
purposes during the second half of that century, we
must look abroad for examples. At Montmorency
church, near Paris, is a fine series of Renaissance
windows dated 1523 — 63. We notice the absence of
borders, which, indeed, tended to disappear in late
Perpendicular work, and, also, the importance of the
figures of donors relative to the subject matters of
the windows. Rather more than one-half of the lower
liglits are given up to kneeling figures of the donors,
the Constable Anne de Montmorency, his wife and
children. To take one as a sample of the rest: in
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110 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
the upper half of the central lower light is the Good
Shepherd with the Holy Lamb and, on either hand,
in the side-lights are Our Lady and St John. Below
these are the Constable kneeling at a prayer desk,
St Anne his Patroness, standing by. Behind him are
his five sons — kneeling figures in armour with sur
coats of arms, one of them helmeted and the others
having their helmets on the ground. In the tracery
lights are, in the centre, the Montmorency arms —
16 blue eaglets on a gold gix)und — supported by
angels, above the shield a typical Renaissance feature,
a cherub's bead, and, on either side, a mailed hand
grasping a sword entwined with a scroll bearing the
words " nos apia " in Roman letters.
Interesting, as well for workmanship as for subject
— the story of the world from its creation to the
Sacrifice upon the Cross — is a window in the Lady
chapel at the church of St Mary Magdalen, Troyes.
In 25 pictures the painter sets forth the tale, which
begins in the lowest tier of panels. First, in four panels,
the world, as a rotating ball, is being fashioned by God
the Father, who, in cope and triple tiara, stands by
its side. In each panel the globe is represented in a
more finished form, until, in the fourth, it appears
complete. Then follow Adam and Eve in the garden,
their fall and its consequences, the Old Testament
stories, Abraham's sacrifice, the Israelites in the
desert, the lifted-up serpent and the rest. The
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V] RENAISSANCE 111
Annunciation, Our Lady's visit to St Elizabeth, the
Nativity and the visit of the three kings continue
the story, which is finished, in the topmost tracery
light, with Our Lord on the cross between the two
thieves, St Mary Magdalen embracing the cross and
our Lady and St John on either side. Below them,
in the tracery, are pictures of the betrayal of Our
Lord and His entombment, and, in the smaller
lights, angels and bishops. From the small, crumpled
drapery folds one gathers that this window is Flemish
and its date is about the middle of the 16th century.
A remarkable feature is the stonework of its tracery
which runs into the form of a large fleur-de-lis, in the
central leaf of which is the Crucifixion.
As to Renaissance Jesse windows, the general
design of this type of window, necessarily remained
the same as in previous styles, the principal variations
being in the treatment of the vine, the branches and
leaves of which became more natural, and in the
figures of kings, which were often portraits, easily
recognisable, of contemporary princes, in some
cases, no doubt, donors. The Jesse in St Stephen's
church, Beauvais, is, perhaps, the best known example
of this practice : there we see portraits, among others,
of the Emperor Charles V (1516— 56), Francis I (died
1547), and his successor Henry II (died 1559).
Although, on the whole, so natural in treatment —
as witness, in particular, the great lily in the tracery
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112 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
from which Our Lady, holding the Divine Child,
springs — the huge blossoms from which the half-
length figures of kings issue are conventional in
the extreme. Coloured backgrounds for Jesse8 being
then in fetshion, that at Beauvais is blue.
At Sens cathedral is a brilliant Jesse window, with
red background, which contains a feature not always
understood — a donkey on one of the branches.
Grotesque as it may seem to the modem mind, the
presence of this creature is quite in accord with
Catholic tradition, which has always honoured the
animal which carried the Founder of Christianity
in triumph into Jerusalem. In the cathedral at
Caudebec is a Jesse in which the figures are full-
length, a return to the earlier type. At Rouen, in
the churches of St Maclou and St Vincent are Jesse
windows with white branches on blue grounds, and,
in St Vincent's is, also, an interesting variant of the
Jesse type ; the vine springs from St Anne, mother of
Our Lady, instead of from Jesse.
Another curious use of the genealogical tree is
seen in the wine-press type of window. Instead of
Jesse at the foot of the window is Our Lord's Body
bruised in the wine-press, whence His Blood falls
into a chalice. From His breast, or, sometimes, from
the chalice, springs the vine, which bears, not Our
Lord's ancestors, but those bom of His teaching —
His spiritual descendants, as it were — the Apostles
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vl RENAISSANCE 113
and saints. The best known example is the window
I)ainted by Linard Gonthier in Troyes cathedral, in
which the vine springs from Our Lord's breast and
from its flowers issue the Apostles. This window is
dated 1625, but, having regard to the excellence of
its colour scheme and its workmanship — quite equal
to the best 16th century work — we mention it here.
There is also a fine wine-press window in the church
of St ;^tienne du Mont at Paris, one of twelve enamel-
painted panels by Robert Pinaigrier one of the best
known 16th century glass-painters. Its vine bears
figures, like so many of the Jesse windows of that
day, intended to represent reigning sovereign&---the
pope, the emperor, the kings of France and England
and bishops and cardinals. At the church of St
Faith, Conches, may be seen another style of wine-
press window. Our Lord Himself is crushing grapes
in the press, the flowing juice from which takes the
place of His blood in the more usual composition.
We have, already, referred to the tendency, notice-
able in the Perpendicular style, for figures of donors to
usurpan unduly important position in picture- windows.
One of the best illustrations of this bad custom is the
painting — ^the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost
— in one of the many 16th century windows in the
church at Montfort L'Amaury, near Versailles. The
window has two long lights and the lower part of
each light — ^fuUy a quarter of the whole — is occupied
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114 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [cH.
by a kneeling figure of a donor. The subject repre-
sented is quite subordinated to the donors. Our
Lady and the Apostles, though well drawn and
grouped, take quite a second place, and, owing largely
to the sharpness of the perspective, they seem to be
disappearing into the background. This window is
a good example of Renaissance work and it makes
us realise how far we have travelled from the
Decorated period. Leaving out of consideration the
moral aspect of the donor's question, we find no
borders, no foliated tracery, no bold single figures
under canopies, no trellissed or quarried background
and no repose. Instead we have classical architecture
— the waggon head vault resting on pillars and
entablature of Roman composite style, — the sharp
perspective, the distance seen between the pillars, all
typical of the Renaissance and all excellent in their
proper setting — an easel picture or tapestry, or,
perhaps, a wall of a classical building. As glass-
paintings, the Montfort L'Amaury windows are
feilures.
As we have already noticed, the 16th century
saw a great increase in the use of painted glass for
secular purposes. In England, the splendid palaces
which were then set up by the Tudor kings and
by the new nobility (who rivalled their sovereigns
in extravagant magnificence)— Whitehall, Hampton
Court, New Hall, Audley End, Wanstead and
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V] RENAISSANCE 115
Somerset House, and the lesser dwellings which were
erected up and down the country by knight and
squire — Shipton Hall and Benthall Hall, Shropshire,
Lake House, Wilts., and Barlborough Hall, Derby-
shire, among many others — the windows of all must,
originally, have been glazed either with quarries and
heraldry in the old manner or with brown and yellow
picture panels like those at Ilford.
For window painting on a large scale in secular
buildings during this period we must, however, again
turn to the continent, especially France, where among
many other examples, we find at Troyes, in the
eight windows of the great hall of the Library, 32
panels, painted by Linard Gonthier, depicting all
that happened at Troyes when Henry IV of France
visited that city in 1595 and the coat-armour of most
of those who there and then foregathered
CHAPTER VI
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER
As we might suppose, from the terms. of Queen
Elizabeth's Ordinance requiring plain glass to be sub-
stituted for coloured glass in churches and for the
destruction of all glass-paintings of a superstitious
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116 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch. vi
character, little or do picture glass for religious
purposes was painted in England during her reign
or for some years after. The craft of the glass-
painter did not, however, wholly languish during
that period, for it is certain that the demand for
heraldic glass progressively increased from mid-
16th century days to the end of the 17th century.
And not only for secular buildings, for it became
the fashion to substitute for the devotional subjects
combined with heraldry, which had filled the windows
of chantry chapels, the coats-of-arms, usually ela-
borately quartered, of the new femilies which had
obtained possession of the lands of the dissolved
religious houses, chantries and guilds.
Many illustrations of this custom might be given.
At Great Pamdon, in the chancel, is a mutilated
shield, very well painted on white glass in enamel
colours, shewing the arms of William Cecil, first Lord
Burghley, and his second wife Margaret, daughter
of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Gidea Hall, Romford, to
whom he was married in 1546. The shield has been
reloaded in modem times, with the result that the
quarterings, of which there are twelve, are in
hopelessly wrong order, and fragments from other
windows have been mixed up with the heraldry.
Lord Burghley did not die until 1598, and we may
safely assign the date of this glass to the closing
years of the 16th century.
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Arms of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (Great Parndon)
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118 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh. vi
A very pretty bit of heraldry in enamel colours,
also illoBtratiye of the practice with regard to
chantry chapels to which we have alluded, is the
shield (there are three others relating to him) of
Emanuel Wollaye at Latton church, near Harlow.
The arrangement of the design is simple, the charges
are well spaced and the diapering of the white glass
— the flanches and the woolsacks — ^is refined and
delicate. The woolsacks — of course, a pun on the
name — are on a green field and the wolves — ^another
pun, perhaps — are blue on white. This Wollaye
shield and its fellows are now leaded into plain
white glass quarries in the east window of what
was, formerly, the chapel of the Holy Trinity and
Our Lady on the north side of the chancel, but is
now used as the vestry, and there can be little
doubt but that they occupy the place formerly held
by a religious picture and the coat-of-arms of the
founder of a chantry in Latton church.
Uffington church, Lincolnshire, can shew another
case of this sort in the arms of TroUope impaling
Sheffield in the north window of the north chancel
chapel.
Towards the end of the reign of James I, however,
a revival of glass-painting for church windows set in
in England and it cannot be said that it has ever,
since that time, except in Commonwealth days, en-
tirely ceased in the land, although 18th, and the
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Arms of WoUaye (Latton)
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120 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
greater part of 19th, century picture- windows are
very poor things judged from the standpoint of the
use painted glass is intended to serve. Archbishops
Abbot and Laud, differing as they did in ideas of
theology and church government, both helped forward
this revival by patronage of Flemish glass-painters,
who again began to settle and work in England.
The best known of them were Baptista Sutton and
the two Van Linges, Bernard and Abi*aham, many
specimens of whose work, signed and dated, may
be seen to-day — especially in Oxford Colleges. At
Wadham College chapel, built in 1613— an interesting
example of Jacobean Gothic — ^the windows are con-
temporary with the building, and the east window,
soft and rich in tone, is by the elder Van Linge, and
is, often, said to be his finest known work. The
chapel windows at University College, set up in the
reign of Charles I, are by the younger Van Linge,.
who also painted the windows (except the two
westernmost on either side) of the chapel at Queen's
College. One specimen of his work, too, has been
left by modem restorers in a window at the West end
of the north nave-aisle of the cathedral at Oxford —
a picture of Jonah and the gourd.
During the 17th century the iignre cmd canopy
design continued in use, the details — often coloured
— of the canopies being either classical or classicised
Gothic of the style affected by Sir Christopher Wren
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VI] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 121
in his restorations of Gothic buildings. But the most
usual type for large windows was a picture extending
over all the lower lights and, often, into the tracery,
set in an architectural framework of the style which
we noticed at Montfort L'Amaury. Sometimes,
figures of donors were beneath the picture. Most
of the work of the Van Linges at Oxford is of this
character, with landscape backgrounds and much
blue and rich olive green in the colour scheme. The
windows at Lincoln's Inn chapel, London, saved by
Archbishop Laud from destruction as superstitious
and idolatrous, are either by one of the Van Linges
or by a painter of their school They are, for the
most part, figures under canopies with donors' arms
at foot, and are extremely rich in colour. In the
west window are considerable remains of its original
glass, among them the arms of Sir William Noy, the
unpopular attorney-general of Charles I.
The tendency in the painting of flesh was to
colour it naturally ; lips and cheeks were tinted
red, the iris of the eye blue and the eye-ball was
shaded Inscriptions were in Roman characters,
and initial letters were often ornamental and stained
yellow.
When the war between Charles I and the Parlia-
ment broke out, the Van Linges left England, but
English painters, trained in their studios, seem to
have carried on their methods of work. Henry
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122 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH.
Giles, of York, who, in 1687, finished some of the
uncompleted work of the younger Van Linge at
University College chapel, is believed to have been
one of their pupils. The east window of this chapel
— the Nativity — ^is entirely Giles* work, and may be
taken as an illustration of the extent to which the
technical part of glass-painting had, in his time,
deteriorated. For, so badly must the enamels have
been prepared, that they have almost completely
perished, leaving the pot-metal colours and yellow
stain intact.
A great defect — want of clearness in the lights —
is noticeable in enamel glass-painting all through
this period and, indeed, down to modem times. The
main cause — one easily got rid of— seems to be the
custom of laying a thin coat of white enamel paint
over the back of the window. It is this practice,
based apparently on the utterly erroneous idea that
the proper office of window glass is, not to admit
light, but to form a screen on which to paint a
picture, which produces that peculiar effect, observ-
able in all enamel-painted glass, suggestive of the
idea that the window is made of porcelain.
To Flemish influence may, perhaps, be due the
existence of other English glass-painters of this
century, although it may well be that there had
been no break in the succession of the English
schools of glass-painting, so far as heraldry and
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VI] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 123
similar decorative work were concerned, even during
the Commonwealth,
Besides heraldry, there was a fashion in the 17th
century for portraits of eminent persons — kings,
pious founders and so forth — to be painted on glass
within small circles or wreaths. At Magdalen and
Wadham Colleges, Oxford, are such little pictures
of Charles I and his queen, and at Brasenose and
St John's are similar paintings of their founders.
At Harlow church, also, in the north transept window,
in which is much good heraldic glass, principally of
Tudor date, are portraits of Charles I and his grand-
daughter, Queen Anne, the king's picture being curious
in that it shews a celestial crown by the side of his
head. Such portraits as these are to be found, also, in
private dwellings, a good example being a head with
heraldry at Northill, Bedfordshire, which is signed
by the painter, "J. Oliver £ 1664."
On the continent the old devotional subjects
continued to furnish material for the glass-painter.
A very favourite style was an extension of the use
of bright colour to the small medallions to which we
referred in the last chapter, combined with greater
variety in their, shapes and surroundings. Often they
were oblong, set in a frame of classical architecture
with figures of saints at the sides and small sacred
pictures and arms of donors at the top and bottom.
Several of these would be set, one over the other, in
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124 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [CH. vi
a single light, with Renaissance borders and fiUings-in
of white and yellow glass. The borders were usually
grotesque Renaissance in design — a mixture of vases,
scrolls, wreaths, fauns, satyrs and so forth. The little
pictures themselves were painted in enamel colours
on a single piece of glass, but the architectural
coloured setting was usually pot-metal shaded with
brown. At Lambourne church, in the chancel, are
five such little pictures, brought in the 1 8th century
from Baden, which convey an excellent idea of this
style, though they are without their white and yellow
borders and settings. Each picturfe was the gift of
a separate donor, whose name, office and arms are set
forth at the foot of the panel. One of them we illus-
trate — The adoration of the Shepherds. The whole
is painted in enamel except the entablature and the
bases of the pillars, which are ruby. Notice the
candle held by St Joseph, its halo like a palm-leaf fan,
the sheep on the floor by the cradle and the quaint
child-figure of Our Lady standing by St Anne, for,
by a curious combination of two stages of the history,
which is common in German art, the Virgin is i*epre-
sented as still a little maid, while St Anne holds in her
arms the Divine Child already bora of her. Observe,
too, above St Anne the seated figure of the donor —
as one supposes it to be — Herr Melchior Abeltin, in his
robes of office. Though delicate in workmanship
and rich in colour, these panels offend against all
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The Adoration of the Shepherds (Lambourne)
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126 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
rules of the art of glass-painting. They are too small,
when viewed from below, to be effective as helps to
devotion and the colours of the pictures, owing to
the absence of dividing lead-lines, run too much
together to give the effect of the old mosaic windows.
The glass-painters of the Renaissance, by their neg-
lect, or ineffective use, of lead-binding for outlines
demonstrate its value for that purpose.
For domestic buildings in Renaissance style — ^for
hall and staircase windows, top-lights in dwelling
rooms and such-like — enamel-painted shields, set in
scroll-work, are very effective and appropriate, and
there are plenty of good specimens of l7th century
work left to serve as models. At the old Pyed Bull
Inn at Islington, long ago destroyed, where, says
tradition, Sir Walter Raleigh at one time lived, were
several 16th and 17th century heraldic glass panels,
among them the arms of Sir Francis Drake and
those of Raleigh himself. Above Raleigh's shield
was a tobacco-plant with sea-lions, while below were
parrots, a grey one and a green, all emblematical,
perhaps, of Raleigh's world-wanderings and of his
fondness for tobacco.
There is a very elaborate piece of heraldry of the
early part of the 17th century at Noke Hill church,
near Romford — it was brought from elsewhere —
shewing the quartered shield, with helmet, crest
and mantling and the Garter, of Francis Manners,
sixth Earl of Rutland.
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VI] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 127
An interesting, though not uncommon, instance
of the survival of a feature of one style in work of
a subsequent, and essentially different style, is to
be found, in the north chancel window at Ilford
Hospital chapel, in a small quartered shield of
Dennis set within a boldly drawn wreath — o, contrast
to the rest of the design — suggestive of the Per-
pendicular styla In the wreath, however, is an
incongruity, for, whereas its main feature is a purple
chaplet, the clasps, white and yellow glass, are
decorated with grotesque Renaissance patterns in-
stead of the simple floral design — such as a rose
or marguerite — of Perpendicular days. In the
tracery of this window is a typical example, dated
1631, of I7th century heraldic painting, clearly
English work — the arms of Ward, with three quar-
terings and two small side shields, and helmet, crest
and mantling, — ^all set amidst fruit and flowers in
a light blue ground. Among the panels, already
described, in the south chancel window of this
chapel is a pretty piece of heraldic painting, prob-
ably French, of the I7th century. The field of
the shield is cobalt blue and the leaves and fruit
around it are naturally coloured — ^green, purple and
yellow: a pastoral staff, without a mitre, behind
the shield indicates that the arms are those of an
abbot.
By the end of the 17th century, glass-painting
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128 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
had nearly reached its lowest point, and, after the
traditions of the Van Linge school had died out,
there is very little in its records worthy of notice
until the revival of the art about the middle of the
19th century. Of that revival and of the progres-
sively excellent work which has followed it, we do
not propose, now, to speak, beyond observing that
the success of modem glass-painters in their craft
seems to be in proportion to the study which they
have given to pre- 16th century glass, to the fidelity
with which they have adhered to ancient methods
and models and to the extent to which they have
imbibed the spirit which animated the workers of
Gothic times.
Nevertheless, a few words upon 18th century
glass-painting may not be out of place. At the
beginning of the century the Price family were
known as glass-painters. There were two brothers,
William and Joshua, and Joshua's son William.
Joshua produced good work in the Van Linge style,
the best known of his paintings being the east
window at St Andrew's, Holbom, which represents
the Last Supper and the Resurrection. With the
excellencies — ^the richness of colour, the careful
drawing and composition — of the Van Linge sdiool,
this picture has the defects of the same school,
especially the heavy and overworked shading. It
is, however, by a long way, the best piece of work
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VI] SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 129
done prior to the modern revival. The other Prices
did nothing that will bear comparison with Joshua's
work. In 1702 the elder William painted, almost
entirely in enamel, the east window at Merton
College chapel, and his nephew and namesake, in
1740, restored the 17th century windows on the
north side of New College chapel. The Van Linge
windows in Queen's College chapel were, also, re-
stored by the Prices in 1717.
William Peckitt of York succeeded to the connec-
tion of the younger William Price, and he did a great
deal of work in his day. There is a large window
by him, designed by Cipriani — the British Minerva
presenting Newton oddly enough to George III — in
the library at Trinity College, Cambridge. There is
very little pot-metal glass in this painting and the
enamel colours are hatched in the style of the oil-
painter.
A piece of glass-painting — much discussed by the
savants of tiie day, Horace Walpole among them —
is the west window at New College chapel, Oxford.
It was painted (as already mentioned) by Thomas
Jervais (died 1801) from designs by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, and represents, in the upper part, the
Nativity and, below, l^e theological virtues. Faith,
Hope and Charity, and the four cardinal virtues,
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. It
is executed entirely in enamel colours.
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130 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
CHAPTER VII
HERALDRY IN GLASS
That branch of glass-painting which longest
resisted deterioration was heraldic work. One
reason for this was the reserve imposed upon the
painter by the rules of heraldry : he could not go
beyond the four colours commonly used in the
science — gvles (red), azure (blue), vert (green) and
purpure (purple), and the metals or (gold or yellow)
and argent (silver or white). Black, of course, he
had, but as for the little-used colours, tenn6 (orange)
and sanguine (blood red), I count them as varieties
of yellow and red respectively. In the use of the
allowed colours he was bound, too, by rule : colour
must not be placed on colour or metal on metal, but
colour on metal and vice versd. It is true that this
rule was not always observed in continental heraldry,
some authorities going so £str as to deny its existence,
and we have, in the arms of the Kings of Jerusalem
(gold crosses in a silver field), a notable instance of
such non-observance, but, on the whole, the rule has
always held in practice.
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VII] HERALDRY IN GLASS 131
Then, again, by the very nature of heraldic art —
the shewing of objects, mostly very simple in design,
on a flat ground — shading was barred, and we know
that one of the most potent causes of the ultimate
ruin of heraldic painting in general was the attempt
to represent, by elaborate shading, charges on a
shield as they are in nature.
Whether the origin of heraldry was the need for
a means of recognition of a fighting man when his
fece was concealed by a closed head-piece, or whether
it was derived from ancient Aryan customs or has
some connection with fetish worship, it is certain
that it began to take form, as an ordered system,
about the time when closed helmets came into use.
Thus the head-man, the lord around whose person
the folk of a manor or district would rally in fight,
would be recognised by the charges on his shield
and banner, and his sons, and often his brothers
and other relations, would adopt a similar design
with diflerences. So, by long &miliar use, a general
recognition of the whole family by a certain heraldic
device would spring up.
By some such process the means of recognition
in war came to serve the same end in general social
life, and what more reasonable than the idea that,
when a man died, a sight of his shield in window or
on monument would remind men of good will to say'
a prayer for his soul ?
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132 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch. vii
Besides this memorial aspect of the science it
ultimately came about, as the result of disuse of
defensive armour, that the value of heraldry, as a
means of distinguishing one &mily from another,
became its only raison d'itre, and it developed into
a complicated science the main object of which was
the registi-ation of family alliances. Thus arose the
practice of quartering, which, beginning vnth the
inclusion of the arms of huslmnd and wife, side by
side, in the same shield, grew at last to the much-
divided shield, with, perhaps, as many as 50 or more
quarterings, of Elizabethan times.
There is but little heraldry in glass to be found
in the Early English style. Some pattern windows
have shields, but they are more like ornamented
divisions of the window than separate designs, as
witness the shields of Clare, England and France
(ancient, semSe qf lilies) in the east vnndow at Selling
church, Kent. The heraldry of the day was simple
— ^a shield, seldom containing more than two colours
in the field, with a single charge, such as a cross or
a lion — and its simplicity was reflected in such coat-
armour as we find in Early English glass. The
shields are large, of the earlier heater shape — i.e. the
sides curve inwards continuously from their tops—
and one coat only is in each shield, for quartering
had not been invented.
As the Decorated period developed, shields got
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Arms of France (ancient), Selling
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134 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
smaller and narrower and changed slightly in shape :
the upper parts of their sides became parallel, at
right angles to the top lines. Such shields, still
without helmet or other accessories, we find in the
upper parts of lower lights, set in white ornamented
quarries. Often they are surrounded by narrow
circular borders, made up of small roses or rings
and dots, with coloured fillings-in between the
shields and borders. The charges are always few
and simple and boldly drawn, and sometimes, as in
the Homchurch chantry window, they are painted
in brown and yellow only, without reference to their
proper heraldic colours. Quartered shields, though
never with more than four quarters, appear in this
period, but they are not so common as impaled
shields, i.e. shields divided vertically into two equal
parts for husband and wife.
The usual arrangement is, say, a three-lighted
window, with a picture-panel, or figure and canopy,
in the central light, the husband's arms alone in the
dexter light and those of the husband and wife
impaled in the sinister. Shields were, in early
Decorated work, seldom diapered, but after a time
diapering was sparingly applied to the ordinaries —
bends, chevrons, chiefs and so forth — and, in the
later years of the style, we find the whole richly
diapered.
When shields occur in tracery they are often
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VII] HERALDRY IN GLASS 135
hung by the guige, or shield belt, from a branch
or a rosette, and, in large tracery lights, they are
set between leaves, within narrow borders, running
into the foils, like the Berkeley shield at Westonbirt
church. Impaled shields were, and are, used for
ecclesiastical and other official arms — the official
arms in the dexter half of the shield and the family
coat in the sinister. Sometimes, however, connec-
tion with an office is indicated by a charge from the
official arms being placed outside the shield con-
taining the family arms, but within the composition,
say, between the shield and a circular border running
round it. An interesting example of this practice
is the quartered shield in a window at Arkesden
church, near Saflron Walden, of Thomas of Arundel
or Fitzalan, successively Bishop of Ely, Archbishop
of York and Archbishop of Canterbury. The arms
of Fitzalan, a lion rcmvpant gold in a red fidd, are
in the first and fourth quarters, and cheeky (like a
chess-board) gold and hluey for Warrenne, are in the
second and third quarters — a true quartered coat.
The shield is set between three crowns to indicate
the bishop's occupancy of the See of Ely — the arms
of which are three croivna in a red field — a circum-
stance which enables us to fix the date of this piece
of glass between 1374, when Thomas became Bishop
of Ely, and 1388, when he was translated to York,
Another quartered coat of this period is at Little
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136 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ca vn
Chesterford — the first and fourth quarters simply
a blue and gold pattern representing a fur called by
heralds vair, and in the second and third quarters
a fes8 between six crosses patonce — aU gold in a red
field, for Beauchamp of Hache.
In the Decorated period, family badges — ^such as
the bear and ragged staff of Warwick, the Percy
crescent, the Hungerford sickle, the Dacre knot and
so forth — begin to appear in painted glass, often
on lozenge-shaped quarries. Also, we find rebuses,
punning allusions to surnames, like Abbot Ramryge's
device at St Albans, a ram with a collar inscribed
ryge, or Abbot Kirton's at Peterborough, a hirh on
a tun or barrel, or Archbishop Islip's name in a
quarry ornament, which we illustrate.
Speaking generally, and without reference to a
few particular cases, arms were borne, prior to the
middle of the 15th century, only by the land-holding
classes — the origin, in this instance, being military —
and by great ecclesiastics. Rich merchants, how-
ever, needed something analogous to coat-armour,
and so it became a custom for them to make dis-
tinctive devices for themselves by combining their
initials with a cross and a triangle, and, often, with
other objects, affcer the style of Sir John Gresham's
mark, to which we refer later. These devices were
called merchants' marks, and they are found, in
plenty, used for all decorative purposes, carved in
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Punning device on quarry
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138 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch. vii
wood or stone or painted on glass, from the 14th
century onwards. In the poem Pierce the Plough-
man's Creed (1394) — not by William Langland,
though often attributed to him — mention is made
of these marks in the description of a Dominican
church :
"Wide wyndowes y- wrought
Y-wryten fal thikke,
Shynen with shapen sheldes,
To shewen aboute,
With merkes of merchauntes
Ymedeled betwene
Mo than twentie and two
Twyse ynoumbbred."
Perpendicular heraldry was a gradual develop-
ment, mainly in increased richness of detail, from
that of the Decorated period. At first, there was
but little diflFerence between the styles, but gradually
diapering assumed more complicated patterns, and
charges were drawn in bolder outline, with more
attention to detail and, often, in grotesque shapes.
Quarterings increased in number and full achieve-
ments became the fashion — ^helmets with mantling
and crests, coronets, supporters and mottoes were
added to the shield. The shield itself, too, tended
to variety in shape, until, towards the end of the
style, it is found in almost every conceivable form,
a circumstance which paved the way for the floriated,
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Arms of Norreys and Beaufort (Ockholt)
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140 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
and quite non-heraldic, shields of the Renaissance
and subsequent periods.
The complete achievement first appears in glass
in England about 1450, but earlier abroad. Fine
examples of this type are the arms in the Hall
windows at Ockholt, already referred to. We illus-
trate two of these lights, shewing the arms of Norreys,
probably of Sir Edward Norreys — ^and those of
Beaufort — ^most likely that Edmund Beaufort, Duke
of Somerset, who was beheaded at Tewkesbury in
1471. The plain shield, squarer in shape than the
Decorated type, was still, however, used, in lower
lights surrounded by border and coloured fiUings-in
and, later, by fiowered wreaths, in panels below
figure and canopy subjects, and in tracery lights
supported by angels or hung by the guige. Punning
allusions, too, were common, as in the wreath of
peach leaves and fruit (each peach charged with the
letter 4) round the shield of Sir John Pech^ (1622)
in Lullingstone church, Kent.
Large tracery lights often had shields in their
centres, with scrolls inscribed with mottoes on the
quarries. An instance is the shield of Cardinal
Beaufort (died 1447) in a quatre-foiled tracery
compartment of one of the refectory windows at
the Hospital of St Cross, near Winchester. The
shield is ensigned with a cardinal's hat, the cords
and tassels of which mingle with the quarries,
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VII] HERALDRY IN GLASS 141
mottoed " A honeur et lyesse," in the two side and
bottom foils.
Perhaps the most prominent of the uses to which
Arms of Sir John Gresham (Great Uford)
heraldry was put in the glass of this period was
decoration of the surcoats of armoured figures, as
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142
ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS
[CH.
the donors at Le Mans, and, less commonly, of
women's dresses and ecclesiastical vestments. Bor-
ders, too, were, as in the Decorated period, often
Merchant's mark of Sir John Gresham (Great Ilford)
heraldic, made up of badges, charges from a shield,
ostrich feathera, monograms and so forth, alternating
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VII] HERALDRY IN GLASS 143
with coloured glass^ and the custom of using brown
enamel heightened with yellow stain alone, without
other colour, was increasingly prevalent.
With the 16th century came signs of the Renais-
sance, and, by 1540 or thereabouts, Gothic had
largely given place to classical forms for shields and .
accessories, and we get such monstrosities — ^from
the heraldic point of view — ^as the panel at Ilford
hospital shewing the arms of Sir John Gresham, Et.
(di^ 1555), and the oval-shaped shield, or car-
touche, on which his merchant's mark is painted.
The quarries decorated with the Gresham badge —
a grasshopper — are fair specimens of the poor kind
of thing which the ornamented quarry had become.
The letters I and M in the mouths of the grasshoppers
stand for John and Mary — Sir John Gresham and
Mary his wife.
After 1700 heraldic ^ass-painting rapidly de-
teriorated and soon became the wretched travesty
of heraldic decoration — enamel painted on thin,
clear glass — which we often meet with in 18th cen-
tury churches, and we can hardly say that the re-
vival of glass-painting in modem times has, as yet,
restored heraldry in glass to anything approaching
its ancient standard.
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CH. VIII] LAST WORDS 145
CHAPTER VIII
LAST WORDS
We have already referred to the fragmentary
state of the greater part of the old painted
glass which has survived to our time& Tliere is
abundant evidence — ^a large volume could be filled
with it — ^that, since the 16th century, destruction
here and abstraction there of the ancient painted
windows have been continuous. Take one or two
cases.
St Martin's church, Stamford, is a very museum
of old heraldic glass, and we might, at first sight,
conclude that here, at least, the windows have been
carefully preserved. In the east window are more
than forty shields of arms — episcopal sees, York
and Lincoln, the abbey of Peterborough, the Prior
of Durham, old baronial femilies, Marmion, Grey,
Comyn and others. But enquiry would bring out
the fact that the greater part of this bmve show was
brought to St Martin's from other churches — among
others, Snape, Yorkshire, and Tattershall, Lincoln-
shire — in 1754 by Brownlow Cecil, Earl of Exeter,
whose object seems to have been to give an air
B. 10
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146 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
of baronial splendour to the church in which his
ancestors lay buried. The spirit in which these
removals were carried out may be judged of, if a
writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (1821, Part ii,
p. 307) is to be trusted, from the fitct that, after the
painted glass had been removed from the choir of
Tattershall church, the window openings there were
left unglazed for fifty years, although the earl had
promised to replace the old stuff with plain glass.
The 18th centuiy Earl of Exeter did no worse than
many have done before and since his time, and it was
certainly a fortunate accident that he set up his
spoils in a parish church instead of in a private
chapeL
To come nearer to our own times. When William
Flower, Norroy king-at-arms, visited Rochford church,
Essex, in the days of Edward VI or Elizabeth, he
noted, in some of the church windows, among other
ancient heraldry, the arms of Bohun. This Bohun
coat was of peculiar interest as being the only
memorial, left at Rochford of the builder of the
14th century church which preceded the present
Perpendicular structure. The Bohun who built the
old church was either William de Bohun, Earl of
Northampton (died 1360), third son of Humphrey,
Earl of Hereford and Essex, or his son Humphrey,
Lord Constable of England (died 1372). It is certain
that the Bohun coat — the mere monetary value of
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VIII] LAST WORDS 147
which was very considerable — together with frag-
ments of figures and canopies, scroll work and
inscriptions, were in the east window of Rochford
church when its restoration was taken in hand in
1862, and that, during that restoration, it was re-
moved and has never been replaced. This is only
one of many similar cases known to the writer, and,
although it may be freely admitted that better ideas
about, and a juster appreciation of, ancient painted
glass are gaining ground over the country, yet there
are, unhappily, still many — often people of influence
and authority — who have not attained to correct
views on the subject, and it cannot be said that
the old painted glass in our churches is, speaking
generally, so safe and secure from destruction or
removal as one would like it to be.
The truth is that there is no eflFective authority
to protect it Legally speaking, the property in
painted windows is in the churchwardens as repre-
sentatives of the parishioners; but, if they are
neither so well instructed as to be interested in them
nor so scrupulous in duty as to preserve them, no
one else can interfere — or, at least, is at all likely
to do so — if the windows are destroyed or taken
away. Then it often happens that the only old
painted glass left in the church is in an aisle or side
chapel belonging to a private person, usually as
appurtenant to his house, and the churchwardens
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148 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [oh.
eannot legally interfere with it, even by way of
needful repair. The powers of the churchwardens,
also, so far as they do extend, are subject to control
by the bishop, whose fieiculty is necessary to the
removal of painted glass from the church windows,
and it is to be feared that a fie^culty, in some cases,
rather fietcilitates the destruction or loss of old glass
than its preservation. For, when the mass of broken
lead and small, dirty, lichen-covered pieces of glass,
which together make up an old painted window —
perhaps an Early English medallion of priceless value
— ^has been taken, quite legally, under a fiwulty, from
its setting and thrown on the ground amidst a heap
of broken stonework and brick rubbish, of what use
does it seem to be ? And is the ordinary man very
blameworthy if he takes small pains to preserve it
or if he jumps at an oflTer, often made in such cir-
cumstances, to exchange it for modem glass ?
What is the remedy for this unsatisfactory state
of things ? Clearly the appointment of local autho-
rities — not the District Councils or any existing
body — whose sole duty should be the care and pre-
servation of all historical monuments older than
1700, including painted glass, within their districts.
The area of jurisdiction of such authorities might
very well be the Hundreds — ancient county divisions,
the convenience of which for administrative purposes
is not always recognised as it deserves to be — ^and
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VIII] LAST WORDS 149
they might, perhaps, be constituted somewhat like
this. A council of twelve for each Hundred, six
members of which should be elected by the District
Councils within the Hundred, three elected by the
clergy of the deanery or deaneries within it, two
nominated by the council of the principal archaeo-
logical society of the county, and one by His Majesty's
Office of Works.
For such a scheme to be workable, it would be
necessary that the control of these local councils —
call them Ancient Monuments Councils — over their
subject-matter should be absolute, so that nothing,
not even repair (except, of course, such as might be
xirgently required to save a monument of antiquity
from immediate injury), could be done to an ancient
monument without the consent of the council,
signified in writing under its seal. Statutory pro-
vision for the safe-guarding of all public and private
rights would, it is assumed, be made.
To fiBkcilitate the work of the councils, especially
to enable them to maintain such actions and pro-
secutions as might at times be necessary, each
Hundred Council should, by statute, be created a
corporation, with perpetual existence and a common
seal and with capacity to sue and be sued. The
members of the councils should be unpaid, though
it would, probably, be necessary to provide them
with paid secretaries, for the work in each Hundred,
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160 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS [ch.
if properly done, would take up the whole time of
one man. The necessary funds for the work of the
Hundred Councils might be provided partly by the
County and District Councils and partly by Ex-
chequer grant and voluntary contribution. Whether
there should be an appeal from the decisions of the
Hundred Councils to, say, the Office of Works, may
be a matter for consideration.
A very necessary work, without which the coun-
cils would be of little use, needs immediate attention
— ^the scheduling of the monuments to be placed
under their care. In the case of painted glass, the
schedules ought, if they are to be eflFective for
purposes of reference and identification, to be sup-
plemented by tracings of every piece of old glass,
however fi-agmentary, included in the schedule.
From the tracings, carefully finished and coloured
traced copies should be made, the copies should be
mounted and kept in portfolios at the office of each
Hundred Council and the original tracings should
be deposited in the Record Office. So far as other
monuments (except brasses, of which rubbings would
be taken) are concerned, they should be photo-
graphed, but photography is of little use for copying
glass in detail.
The powers of the councils should be wide, and
they should have unlimited discretion to deal with
schemes for bringing into usefulness broken or
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VIII] LAST WORDS 161
fragmentary glass. Too often such glass^ from which
it is usually possible, if it be stiU in situ, for an
expert to build up something very like the window
of which it originally formed a pa^t, is taken from
its setting, leaded up with other fragments into a
confused mass — ^a jumble window — ^and inserted in
some out-of-the-way place, perhaps, in a tower win-
dow or a side window of the chanceL How much
better would it be to make a new window around
the old pieces — taking care to distinguish them, say,
by gilding or painting their leads — than, by the
jumble-system, to destroy their usefulness for ever?
The Hundred Councils would go into all such
. questions and evolve plans for dealing with them.
Some progress, fortunately, is being made to-
wards these good ends by the Historical Monuments
Commission, whose work comprises the scheduling
of all monuments of antiquity older than 1700.
Hertfordshire and Bucks the Commission has already
dealt with and the schedules of their antiquities,
including painted glass, have been published. These
county schedules, as they appear, when supplemented
by such tracings and copies as we have suggested,
would form the basis for the work of the Hundred
Councils.
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162 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS
AIDS TO FURTHER STUDY
Some who have looked through this little book
may like to go further in the study of old painted
glass. To them I would say, the best books on the
subject are the nearest ancient cathedral and the
old parish churches round about your own neigh-
bourhood, wherever it may be. For it is a thing to
be remembered, and one not always recognized, that,
despite neglect and destruction, ample materials for
first-hand study of old glass are still to be found
through the length and breadth of England. You
may see, in the average country church, glass of
the same quality, design, and workmanship as in
the cathedral; the same craftsman did both. The
difference is in quantity and size of window: for,
while the destroyer may have been at work in both
cathedral and parish church since the 16th century,
it is likely that a larger quantity of old glass will be
found to have survived in the cathedral than in
the parish church, though the latter may still shew
enough painted glass of pre-18th century date to
satisfy the reasonable needs of the student
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AIDS TO FURTHER STUDY 163
As, however, books have their uses as guides to
practical work, we may mention a few which cannot
be consulted without profit and to which the writer
gladly acknowledges his own indebtedness. First,
the four folio volumes of Mr N. H. J. Westlake's
History of Design in Painted Glass (1881-94);
next, Winston's Styles in Ancient Glass-painting,
two volumes (Parker, Oxford, 1847), the standard
books on our subject for English readers ; then
Windows, a Book dbovt Stained and Painted Glass,
by L. F. Day (Batsford, 1909), the late Rev. J. J.
Joyce's Monograph on the Fairford Windows
(Arundel Society, 1872), and, for the chapel windows
of King's College, Cambridge, the short Guide by Dr
M. R James, now Provost of the College (Cambridge
University Press, 1899). On continental glass we
have, for Le Mans cathedral, Vitrav^ peints de la
Cathedral du Mans, by M. E. Hucher (Paris and Le
Mans, 1865) ; for Bourges cathedral, Monographie
de la Cathedral de Bourges, by Fathers Martin
and Cahier (1841) ; and for general books on glass-
painting, from the French point of view, Le Vieil's
L'Art de la Peinture sur Verre et de la Vitrerie
(Paris, 1774), Essai historiqm et descriptif sur la
Peinture sur Verre, by E. H. Langlois (Rouen, 1832),
and Lasteyrie's Histoire de la Peinture sur Verre
(2 vols., Paris, 1857).
An excellent sketch of old painted glass in the
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154 ANCIENT PAINTED GLASS
cathedrals and great churches of northern and
central France is Stained Glass Tov/rs in France^
by C. H. Sherrill (John Lane, 1908) — a book which
indicates in its author a fine enthusiasm for ancient
glass ; and a standard German book is Dr Gessert's
Geschichte der Glasmalerei (Stnttgdirt, 1839; English
translation, 1851).
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INDEX
Abbess Boding, Cburoh, 63
Abraham, 13
Adoration of the Shepherds, 124
Agnes, St, 21
Agony in the Garden, oar Lord's,
19
All Souls' College, Oxford, 7
Ambrose, St, 21, 79
Andrew, St, 13
Angels, 2, 8, 14, 21, 82, 90
Annas, High Priest, 21
Anne, St, 110, 112, 124
Anne, Queen, portrait of, 123
Apollonia, St, 80
Apostles, 20, 81, 90, 114
Aragon, arms of, 99
Arkesden, Church, 70, 135
Arthur, Prince, 4, 100
Arundel, Thomas of. Archbishop,
arms of, 135
Ascension, our Lord's, 20
Ascension window (Le Mans),
30
Aston Hall, 93
Augustine of Hippo, St, 21, 79
Baden, glass from, 41, 124
Badges, 64, 68, 136, 142, 143
Balliol College, Oxford, 5
Beauchamp, arms of, 69, 136
Beaufort, arms of, 140
Beauvais, Cathedral, 47
Beauvais, St Stephen's, 40, 111
Belt windows, 55, 81
Berkeley, arms of, 135
Biblia Pauperum, extracts from,
101
Bigod, arms of, 12
Bisoop, Benedict, 25
Black Prince, arms of, 69
Blue Dick (Bichard Culmer), 9,
23
Bohun, arms of, 146-7
Borders, 1, 12, 15, 60, 68, 82,
101, 109, 134, 142
Bourges Cathedral, 44, 77, 153
Bracket design, 84
Bradwell Church, 60
Brasenose College, Oxford, 123
Bray, Sir Reginald, 4
Brereton Hall, 93
British Isles, oldest glass in, 28
Bubwith, Bishop, arms of, 14
Burghley, Lord, arms of, 116
Caiaphas, High Priest, 21
Cambridge Colleges, old glass in,
4,5,7
Canopies, 43, 76, 78-9, 80, 90,
102
Canterbury Cathedral, 9, 23, 27,
41,44
Cathedrals, English, 9-14
Catherine, St, 13, 99
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INDEX
Catherine of Aragon, 100
Caudebeo Cathedral, 112
Chantilly, Ch&teau of, 108
Charges, heraldic, 134, 188
Charles Y, Emperor, 106 (arms),
111 (portrait)
Charles 1, portraits of, 128
Chartres Cathedral, 40, 44, 47
Ch6na Church, 28
Chetwode Church, 1
Chichele, Archbishop, 7
Chichester Cathedral, 10
Childrey Manor House, 98
Christopher, Bt, 44
Cirencester Church, 2
Clare, arms of, 12, 132
Clarence, Duke of, arms, 69
Clerestories, glass in, 4, 42
Cooxyen, glass painter, 108
Cologne, St Mary of the Capitol,
82
Colours, 48 (Early English), 62-8
(Decorated), 73-7 (Perpen-
dicular) , 102-4 (Renaissance)
Comyn, arms of, 145
Conches, St Faith's, 118
Conventual Churches, andent,
4, 5, 96
Cornwall, Earl of, arms, 12
Creation, pictures of, 4, 110
Cross, taking down from the,
19
Crowns, 71
Crucifixion, 9, 12, 19
Dacre, badge of, 136
David, Judgment of, 22
Dennis, arms of, 127
Diapering, 64r-6, 134, 138
Diocletian, 21
Doctors of the Church, figures of,
4, 21, 79
Donors, 38-41, 80, 81, 87-90, 91,
98, 109, 113, 121, 124
Dorchester Church, 72
Dorothy, St, 21
Dowsing, fanatic, 23
Drake, Sir Francis, arms of, 126
Dunster Priory, 5
Durham, Prior of, arms, 145
Dyserth Church, 58
Edmund, St, 13, 63
Edward, St, 13, 56, 60, 66
Edward in, arms of, 69
Edward IV, portrait of, 9
Elizabeth, St, 106
Elizabeth of Tork, 99
Elizabeth, Queen, ordinance of,
23, 115
Ely, See of, arms, 135
Enamel painting, 32, 103, 116,
118, 122, 126, 129
England, arms of, 12, 14, 21, 69,
132
Entombment, our Lord's, 19
Evangelists' symbols, 14, 15, 82,
90
Eve, temptation of, 19
Exeter Cathedral, 13
Eymoutiers Church, 77
Fairford Church, 8, 16-22, 79,
82, 86, 101, 153
Faulkbourne Hall, 94
Figure and canopy subjects, 14,
48, 45, 55, 58-9, 78, 120
Filastre, Cardinal, figure of, 88
Fitzalan, arms of, 70, 135
Flemish glass painting, 98, 111,
120, 122
Fox, Bishop, arms of, 11
Fragmentary state of old glass,
1, 14, 22-4, 145, 150-1
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167
France, arms of, 12, 182
Francis I, portrait of, 111
Gkorge, St, 14, 99
Qervasias, St, 35
Qideon and the fleece, 19
Giles, Henry, glass painter,
122
Glass, old, destruction of, 2, 5,
6, 8, 9-11, 162
Glass painting, deterioration of,
78, 103, lU, 122, 125-6, 128
revival of, 32, 118, 143
Glazing, coloured, origin and
development of, 25, 26, 49,
51, 102
Gloucester Cathedral, 85
Good Shepherd, 110
Gonthier, Linard, glass painter,
113, 115
Grasshoppers (Gresham badge),
143
Great Ilford, Hospital Chapel,
105, 127, 143
Great Pamdon Church, 116
Gregory, St, 21, 79
Gresham, Sir John, 108, 136,
138, 143
Gresham, Mary, 143
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 108
Grev, arms of, 145
Guilds, as donors, 38
Harlow Church, 63, 123
Harrison, William, Elizabethan
author dted, 24
Helena, St, 13
Henry U of England, 1
Henry TL of France, 111
Henry V, 7
Henry VI, 7, 94
Henry VII, 99
Henry VIII, 100
Heraldry in old glass, 2, 5, 9, 10,
11, 12, 14, 40, 46, 60, 68-9,
80, 86, 88, 91, 93, 108, 110,
116, 121, 123, 126-7, 130-
143, 132 (Early English),
132-6 (Decorated), 138—43
(Perpendicular), 143 (Be-
naissance and after)
Herod, Emg, 21
Historical monuments, Royal
Commission on, 151
Holbom, St Andrew's Church,
128
Holy Ghost, descent of, 20, 113
Holy Lamb, 110
Homchurch Church, 60, .68-9
Hungerford, badge of, 136
Impalement, heraldic, 135
Ina, King, 13
Inscriptions on old glass, 2, 5, 6,
70, 121
Isaii^, Prophet, 13
Islington, Pyed Bull Inn, 126
Islip, rebus of, 126
James, St, 5, 80
Jerome, St, 21, 79
Jerusalem, our Lord's entry into,
19
kings of, arms, 130
Jervais, Thomas, glass painter,
129
Jesse windows, 2, 5, 12, 13, 35,
40, 45-7, 68,61,85-6, 111-12
Jewell, Bishop, arms of, 12
John, St, Baptist, 13, 21
John, St, Evangelist, 84, 110,
111
John of Gaunt, 7 (portrait), 69
(arms)
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INDEX
Joseph, St, 124
Jndas, 21
Jumble windows, 151
King, Bishop, arms of, 12
King's College, Cambridge, 4, 7,
8, 86, 102, 153
Eingsdown Church, 66, 71
Kirkby Belers Abbey, 96
Eirton, Abbot, rebus of, 136
Knowle Church, 2
Lady, our, 21, 30,36, 68, 63, 66,
71, 80, 84, 90, 106, 110, 111,
114, 124
Lamboume Church, 41, 124
Last Judgment, 4, 7, 10, 13, 21, 90
Last Supper, 128
Latton Church, 118
Laurence, St, 21
Lead binding, 26, 104, 126
Le Mans Cathedral, 30, 35, 36,
41, 48, 88, 90, 97, 153
Lettering, 70, 101
Limbo, our Lord's preaching in,
19
Lincoln College Chapel, Oxford, 7
Lincoln, See of, arms, 145
Lincoln's Inn Chapel, London,
121
Little Chesterford Church, 136
Llanrhaiadr Church, 86
Long Melford Church, 23
Lord, our, events of His life, 19,
20, 30, 47, 81, 84, 98, 111
Louis, St, 90
Louis II of Anjou, 88, 91
Louis III of Anjou, 88
Louis, Bastard of Maine, 88
Ludlow Church, 2
LuUingstone Church, 140
Luttrell, arms of, 5
Magdalen College, Oxford, 7, 123
Malvern, Great, Abbey, 4
Malvern, Little, Priory, 4
Margaret, St, 13, 21
Margaret of Anjou, 94
Marmion, arms of, 145
Mary of Brittany, 88
Mary Magdalen, St, 13, 111
Matthias, St, 20
Medallions, 35 (Early English),
105-8, 123-6 (Renaissance)
Mediaeval crafts, unity of, 15-17
Merchants' marks, 68, 136, 143
Merevale Abbey, 4
Merton College, Oxford, 6, 61,
62, 68, 69, 129
Michael, St, 13, 22
Mitres, 72
Monograms, 64, 142
Montfort L'Amaury Church, 40,
113, 121
Montmorency Church, 109
Montmorency, Constable Anne
de, 109-10
Monuments, ancient, protection
of, 147-61
Moses, 13, 19
Nativity, painting of, 6, 129
Netteswell Church, 71, 82
New College, Oxford, 6, 129
New Hall, Boreham, 99, 100
Noke Hill Church, 126
Norreys, arms of, 140
North Ockendon Church, 69
North Weald Church, 63
NorthiU, 123
Noy, Sir William, arms of, 140
Obadiah, Prophet, 20
Ockholt Hall, 94, 140
Oliver, J., glass painter, 123
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Oxford Cathedral, 12, 120
Oxford Colleges, 5, 120
Painted glass, books on, 153-4
Parish churches, old glass in, 1, 2
Passion, instruments of, 14, 98
Pattern glass, coloured, 48
Paul, St, 13
Pech^, Sir John, arms of, 140
Peckitt, William, glass painter,
129
Percy, badge of, 136
Peter, St, 13, 20
Peter de Savoisy, Bishop, 88
Peterborough Abbey, arms of, 146
Peterhouse, Cambridge, 8
Pilate, Judgment of, 19
Pinaigrier, Robert, glass painter,
113
Pointz, arms of, 69
Portraits in painted glass, 123
Pot-metal, 31, 63, 76
Preservation of old glass, sug-
' gestions for, 147-61
Price family, glass painters,
128-9
Protasius, St, 35
Provence, arms of, 12
Punning, heraldic, 140
Puritans, damage to old glass by,
8,23
Quarries, ornamented, 1, 3, 6,
63, 72, 76, 136, 143
Quarterings, heraldic, 132, 134,
135, 136, 138
Queen's College, Oxford, 6, 120,
129
Baleigh, Sir Walter, arms of, 126
Balph of Shrewsbury, Bishop, 13
Bamryge, Abbot, rebus of, 136
Bamsey Abbey, 8
Bebuses, 136
Ben^ of Anjou, 88
Besurrection, our Lord's, 20, 128
Bheims Cathedral, 44
Bichard III, 9
Blom (Ste Chapelle), 81
Bivenhall Church, 28, 36, 47
Boohester Cathedral, 10
Bochford Church, 146
BoUright Church, 1
Bose windows, 61, 90
Bouen, churches at, 112
Bound glass, 82
Boydon Church, 60, 64
Buby glass, 62
Butland, Earl of, arms, 126
Salisbury Cathedral, 11, 46
Scourging, our Lord's, 19
Scrolls, 70
Sebastian, St, 21
Secular buildings, painted glass
in, 92-6, 126
Selling Church, 132
Sens Cathedral, 112
Seylake, Abbot, device of, 6
Sheba, Queen of, and Solomon, 19
Sheering Church, 68, 63, 66, 67,
71, 72, 97
Sheffield family, arms of, 118
Shields, shape of, 132-4, 138,
140, 143
Shrewsbury Church, 2
Smear shading, 77
Snape Church, 146
Snodland Church, 68
Solomon, Judgment of, 22
South Mymms, 41
St Albans Cathedral, 10, 69
Stamford (All Saints'), 66
Stamford (St Martin's), 145
Stapleford Abbots, 66, 66
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INDEX
St Cross, Hospital of, 140
St Denis, Abbey, Paris, 31, 48
Ste Chapelle, Paris, 27, 42, 44
St Etienne du Mont, Paris, 113
Stipple shading, 77
St John's College, Oxford, 123
St Ii6, 80
Strasbnrg Cathedral, 44
Styles, see Contents
Subjects, arrangement of, 8, 14-
22,55
Surooats, heraldic, 141-2
Sutton, Baptista, glass painter,
120
TattershaU Church, 145, 146
Technique. 31, 64-6, 73, 76, 77,
78, 91, 100. 103, 121, 131
Tewkesbury, Abbey, 6
Thomas, St, of Canterbury, 1, 7,
9, 13, 21, 27
Tours Cathedral, 41, 42
Tracery lights, 2, 56, 70, 81,134-^5
Transfiguration, our Lord's, 19
Trellis windows, 51
Trinity College, Cambridge, 9, 129
Trinity College, Oxford, 7
Triptych style, 61
Trollope, arms of, 118
Troyes Cathedral, 113
Troyes, Churches at, 109, 110
Troyes, Library, 115
Uffington Church, 118
Universities, old glass at, 5-9
University College, Oxford, 5,
120, 122
Upper Hardres Church, 64
Van Linge the elder, glass painter,
120-1 '
Van Linge the younger, glass
painter, 120-1, 122
Varnish painting on glass, 33
Verre double, 76
Victoria and Albert Miasenm, old
glass at, 27, 42
Vulgate, extracts from, 101
Wadham College, Oxford, 7, 120,
123
Waltham Holy Cross, Abbey, 4,
99
Ward, arms of, 127
Warrenne, arms of, 69, 70, 135
Warwick, badge of, 136
Wells Cathedral, 13
Westminster Abbey, 4
Westminster, St Margaret's
Church, 4, 98-100
Westonbirt Church, 69, 135
Westwell Church, 45, 47, 48,
50, 64
West Wickham Church, 84
Wheel windows, 61, 85
White windows, 44, 50
Wilton Church, 45
Winchester Cathedral, 10. 23
Winchester College Chapel, 85
Windows, painted, legal rights
in, 147-8
painted, loss of, 145, 147
Wine-press windows, 112-13
Wollaye, arms of, 118
Worfield Church, 66
Wulstan, St, 4
Yellow stain, 48, 52-4, 63, 64,
74, 91, 143
Tolande of Aragon, 88
York Cathedral, 10, 28, 44, 66, 68
York, See of, arms, 146
OAMBBIDOE: PBINTED BT JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVEBSITT PBBSS.
UNIV. OF WICHIOANcoooIp
Oigitized by VjOOyiC
8EP18]P]I^
THE
CAMBRIDGE MANUALS
OF SCIENCE AND LITERATURE
Published by the Cambridge University Press
GENERAL EDITORS
P. GILES. Litt.D.
Master of Emmanuel College
and
A. C. SEWARD, M.A., F.R.S.
Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridse
SIXTY VOLUMES NOW READY
HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Ancient Assyria. By Rev. C. H. W. Johns. Litt.D.
Ancient Babylonia. By Rev. C. H. W. Johns, Litt.D.
A History of Civilization in Palestine. By Prof. R. A. S.
Macalister, M.A., F.S.A.
China and the Manchus. By Prof. H. A. Giles. LL.D.
The Civilization of Ancient Mexico. By Lewis Spence.
The Vikings. By Prof. Allen Mawer, M.A.
New Zealand. By the Hon. Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G.. LL.D..
and J. Logan Stout. LL.B. (N.Z.).
The Ground Plan of the English Parish Church. By A.
Hamilton Thompson. M.A.. F.S.A.
The Historical Growth of the English Parish Church. By A.
Hamilton Thompson, M.A., F.S.A.
Brasses. By J. S. M. Ward. B.A.. F.R.Hist.S.
Ancient Stained and Painted Glass. By F. S. Eden.
LITERARY HISTORY
The Early Religious Poetry of the Hebrews. By the Rev.
E. G. King. D.D.
The Early Religious Poetry of Persia. By the Rev. Prof. J.
Hope Moulton, D.D., D.Theol. (Berlin).
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LITERARY HISTORY (continueJ)
The History of the English Bible. By the Rev. John Brown*
D.D.
English Dialects from the Eighth Century to the Present Day.
By W. W. Skeat. Litt.D.. D.C.L.. F.B.A.
King Arthur in History and Legend. By Prof. W. Lewis
Jones, M.A.
The Icelandic Sagas. By W. A. Craigie. LL.D.
Greek Tragedy. By J. T. Sheppard. M.A.
The Ballad in Literature. By T. F. Henderson.
Goethe and the Twentieth Century. By Prof. J. G. Robertson,
M.A.. Ph.D.
The Troubadours. By the Rev. H. J. Cha3rtor, M.A.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
The Idea of God in Elarly Religions. By Dr F. B. Jevons.
Comparative Religion. By Dr F. B. Jevons.
The Moral Life and Moral Worth. By Prof. Sorley, Litt.D.
The Elnglish Puritans. By the Rev. John Brown, D.D.
An Historical Account of the Rise and Development of Presby-
terianism in Scotland. By the Rt Hon. the Lord Balfour
of Burleigh. K.T.. G.C.M.G.
Methodism. By Rev. H. B. Workman, D.Lit
EDUCATION
Life in the Medieval University. By R. S. Rait, M.A.
ECONOMICS
Cash and Credit. By D. A. Barker, l.C.S.
LAW
The Administration of Justice in Criminal Matters (in England
and Wales). By G. Glover Alexander. M.A.. LL.M.
BIOLOGY
The Coming of Evolution. By Prof. J. W. Judd. C.B., F.R.S.
Heredity in the Light of Recent Research. By L. Doncaster,
M.A.
Primitive Animals. By Geoffrey Smith, M.A.
The Individual in the Animal Kingdom. By J. S. Huxley, B.A.
Life in the Sea. By James Johnstone, B.Sc.
The Migration of Birds. By T. A. Coward.
Spiders. By C. Warburton, M.A.
House Flies. By C. G. Hewitt, D.Sc.
Earthworms and their Allies. By F. E. Beddard, F.R.S.
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ANTHROPOLOGY
The Wanderings of Peoples. By Dr A. C-Haddon. F.R.S.
Prehistoric Man. By Dt W. L. H. Duckworth.
GEOLOGY
Rocks and their Origins. By Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole.
The Work of Rain and Rivers. By T. G. Bonney, Sc.D.
The Natural History of Coal. By Dr E. A. Newell Arber.
The Natural History of Clay. By Alfred B. Searle.
The Origin of Elarthquakes. By C. Davison, ScD., F.G.S.
BOTANY
Plant-Animals : a Study in S)rmbiosis. By Prof. F. W. Keeble.
Plant-Life on Land. By Prof. F. O. Bower. ScD.. F.R.S.
Links with the Past in the Plant-World. By Prof. A. C Seward.
PHYSICS
The Earth. By Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S.
The Atmosphere. By A. J. Berry. M.A.
The Physical Basis of Music. By A. Wood. M.A.
PSYCHOLOGY
An Introduction to Experimental Psychology. By Dr C. S.
Myers.
The Psychology of Insanity. By Bernard Hart, M.D.
INDUSTRIAL AND MECHANICAL SCIENCE
The Modem Locomotive. By C. Edgar Allen. A.M.I.Mech.E.
The Modern Warship. By E. L. Attwood.
Aerial Locomotion. By EL H. Harper. M.A.. and Allan E;
Ferguson. B.Sc.
Electricity in Locomotion. By A. G. Whyte, B.Sc.
The Story of a Loaf of Bread. By Prof. T. B. Wood, M.A.
Brewing. By A. Chaston Chapman. J*. I. C.
SOME VOLUMES IN PREPARATION
HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The Aryans. By Prof. M. Winternitz.
The Peoples of India. By J. D. Anderson.
Prehistoric Britain. By L. McL. Mann.
The Balkan Peoples. By J. D. Bourchier.
The Evolution of Japan. By Prof. J. H. Longford.
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HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY (continued)
The West Indies. By Sir Daniel Morns, K.C.M.G.
The Royal Navy. By John Ley land.
Gypsies. By John Sampson.
English Monasteries. By A. H. Thompson, M.A.
A Grammar of Heraldry. By W. H. St John Hope. Litt.D.
Celtic Art. By Joseph Anderson. LL.D.
LITERARY HISTORY
The Book. By H. G. Aldis, M.A.
Pantomime. By D. L. Murray.
Folk Song and Dance. By Miss Neal and F. Kitson.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
The Moral and Political Ideas of Plato. By Mrs A. M. Adam.
The Beautiful. By Vernon Lee.
ECONOMICS
The Theory of Money. By D. A. Barker.
Women's Work. By Miss Constance Smith.
EDUCATION
German School Education. By Prof. K. H. Breul. Litt.D.
The Old Grammar Schools. By Prof. Foster Watson.
PHYSICS
Beyond the Atom. By Prof. J. Cox.
The Sun. By Prof. R. A. Sampson.
Wireless Telegraphy. By C. L. Fortescue, M.A*
Rontgen Rays. By Prof. W. H. Bragg. F.R.S.
BIOLOGY
Bees and Wasps. By O. H. Latter, M.A.
The Life-story of Insects. By Prof. G. H. Carpenter.
The Wanderings of Animals. By H. F. Gadow, M.A., F.R.S.
GEOLOGY
Submerged Forests. By Clement Reid, F.R.S.
Coast Erosion. By Prof. T. J. Jehu.
INDUSTRIAL AND MECHANICAL SCIENCE
Coal Mining. By T. C. Cantrill.
Leather. By Prof. H. R. Procter.
Cambridge University Press
C. F. Clay, Manager
London : Fetter Lane, E.G.
Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street
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