Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/338

 LOW SIDE WINDOWS. BUCKNELL, OXB'ORDSHIEE. a a. Low side windows. No part of our ancient churclies lias so completely baffled the enquiries of antiquaries, architectural students, and eccle- siologists, as the low side windows which so frequently occur near the west end of the chancel, usually on the south side, but sometimes on the north, and sometimes on both sides; occasionally also near the east end of the nave, and in other situations. It is difficult to give any detinition of them that will apply to them all, excepting that they are always below the range of the other windows, and generally very near the ground. They are frequently walled up, and this appears to have been done at some remote period ; many of them, how- ever, still remain open, and are now glazed, but in such cases the glazing is always modern, and they do not appear "to have been originally glazed ; in several instances wooden shutters remain, which appear to be original, and in many more the hinges or fastenings remain. Examples may be found of all periods ; but prior to the thirteenth century they are rare : after that period they become comparatively common, and traces of them belonging to this