55

“ In the larger ecclesiastical structures, as in the domestic chapels

of the Tudor times, were introduced the usual representations of pro-%

phets, apostles, and saints, placed on pedestals, with their distinguishingemblems; their names, or passages from Scripture, being inscribed onlabels, which were profusely thrown about, through the intricacies ofthe subject. The proportion of white glass, both in the grounds anddraperies, being, however, much greater than in windows of an earlierdate.

“ In the great halls, and in some of those apartments devoted tothe more retired occupation of the family, heraldry held the chief,and indeed almost the exclusive place. The window openings were filledeither by plain glass, cut into fanciful shapes, conjoined by lead invarious kinds of fret-work, or by the simple quarry, sometimes plain,but more frequently bearing a badge, device, or cipher. It was notunusual at this time, and indeed somewhat earlier, to repeat in diagonallines the motto of the family, written in the long black letter of thetime ; on these kinds of ground each bay contained a square panel,or perhaps more frequently a circle, on which was placed the quarteredor impaled escutcheon, surrounded by a broad wreath of foliage, bandedat intervals, and adorned at the sides, top, and bottom, by roses, orby ornaments in the Florentine style. We often find the interior ofthe wreath occupied by profile portraits of the monarch, his consort,or the proprietor of the mansion ; these are frequently to be foundrepeated on the carved wainscoting. During the reigns of Mary andof Elizabeth, the ornamental grounds were rarely used, the openingswere generally filled by plain, clear glass, cut in the simple lozengeform, the decorative parts consisting of large ovals, containing nu-merously quartered coats, in shields of the most extravagant outline,with fruit or flowers intermingled ; both the drawing and colour being