Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/51

 12 s. vii. JULY 10, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES. Ancient Glass in Winchester. By J. D. Le Couteur. (Winchester, Warren, 8s. Qd. net.) WE believe that several of our correspondents have been looking forward with interest to the appear- ance of this volume. They will not be disappointed. Mr. Le Couteur is twice to be congratulated : on having a subject to treat which was still in want of exhaustive or as it is called, " definitive " treatment ; and on having dealt with it in a most satisfactory way. Few antiquarian studies present greater attractions than the study of ancient glass. The limits within which the mediaeval glazier worked may count as good fortune. Compare the conditions of his task with those to which the fresco-painter adjusted his designs. The leading ; the restricted range of colours ; the exigencies of light ; above all, the unyielding frame within which the glass must be accurately fitted com- posed a problem neither too simple nor too intricate to excite the wits of a good craftsman to their best and happiest play. And when the task was complete what magical effect ! For not merely did the glazier like the sculptor, the painter and the jeweller make things beautiful in themselves ; he also determined the very light by which all else that was beautiful in his church or hall was to be seen. At once subordinate and independent, the mediaeval glazier is craftsman rather than artist : he states, but does not interpret : to speak of him in the grammar of language, he uses the plain indicative mood of the people and that positively : subjunctives and optatives, the typical moods of the artist, which subtly transmute statements of fact and fill them with a person's own reasons, questions and feelings remain a foreign idiom to him. And in this particular, no less than in his sense for colour and " significant form " (if it be permitted to borrow an expression from the art jargon of yesterday), he may be held a luckier man than the designers and glaziers of later centuries. To understand him, and to understand the full harmony of the edifice to which he contributed, it is essential to know the stories with which his mind connected the figures he made, and we think Mr. Le Couteur's readers should highly esteem his consideration and patience in setting down the legends of the saints who appear in the Winchester glass. Pretty well all that a student needs in this way is thus here under his hand. We a little demurred to St. George's being, however tentatively, connected with Cap- padocia, since that tends to continue Gibbon's unfounded identification of him with a certain sorry Bishop unnecessarily, too, the birthplace of St. George being, we believe, quite unknown. The historical illustration leaves nothing to be desired. Mr. Le Couteur has gone through all the original " sources," which could throw any light on his subject, with most minute care, and enriches his account of the glass with an abun- dance of documentary detail. As we might expect of him, he gives plenty of biographical information setting out, e.g., all that is known of those four interesting figures at the base of the great Jesse window in the College Chapel : Simon,- Membury, Wykeham's clerk of the works ; Thomas Winford, the master mason; the Car' pentarius and the master glazier, Thomas, operator- istius viiri to say nothing of John Prudde, the King's glazier in the middle fifteenth century, and many another whom time has more thanv half-obliterated to the eyes of all but the anti- quary. Our author is able to settle one or two ancien^ disputes. Thus the date of the glass in the College Chapel hitherto uncertain, and by some experts placed as late as within the fifteenth century is now fixed at 1393, by the discovery of an entry relating to it in the Roll of Wykeham's household expenses for the latter half of the 26th year of his consecration (which took place in 1367). This Roll is given in full as an appendix to the chapter on the College glass. A minor set of puzzles straightened out are those connected with Thurbern's Chantry where- among other things, a (rather surprising) mis- reading of an entry in the College Accounts for 1482-3, had led to statements that the College had put in secondhand glass. Mr. Le Couteur has no trouble in showing this to be without foundation. Every page .would furnish examples of the skill and success with which the necessary material for this valuable work has been collected and elaborated. We confess, however, to finding something to complain of in the general arrange- ment, in that it is difficult to find any particular place in the book, there being no table of section- headings, and, in the text, no distinction made between the headings of sections and those of sub- sections. This does not affect the value of the fact that it may now be said that there is not in Winchester Cathedral, in the Close, in the College, at St. Cross or in the City a fragment of ancient glass which has not been carefully examined and described, and that, too, with the particular insight and happy effect characteristic of a labour of love. Mr. Le Couteur modestly disclaims any " literary pretensions " : but the vividness with which a careful reader will find himself able to visualize the treasures of these windows show if it needed showing how much true literary quality may be secured by mere concentration on one's subject matter, and an enthusiastic determination to get it well and fully set out. To a lover of this art, a study of the Winchester glass does not, unfortunately, bring unmixed enjoyment. All too large a proportion of the description is an account of beautiful debris ; and a recent correspondence in our columns has re-called attention to the still more grievous one might be forgiven for saying the infuriating loss to the College of the beautiful ancient glass, which, a century ago, was entrusted to a Shrews- bury firm for cleaning and repairing, and by them retained, a copy being made and sent to Winchester in its place. The photographs, which are well-chosen, numerous and on the whole, for their purpose, satisfactory, include the St. Barbara and St. George in Ludlow Parish Church which have been erroneously supposed to belong to Winchester Cathedral. The book concludes witn some useful hints on the preservation of ancient glass ; and a melancholy