character and arrangement of the windows is such as we should expect. The most eastern is highly decorated as being next to the altar; it and the three following belonged to the oratory; those to the west of the space that is there found were the lights of the secular part, or infirmary proper. The screen which separated these two parts of the chamber was apparently placed close to the fourth window, and to the east of the doorway of which traces exist between the fourth and fifth windows. Or, if the oratory was used by the brethren as their chapel, this door may have opened into the oratory itself, so as to admit them without their passing through the secular infirmary in which lay the sick.

Some persons have surmised with much show of reason that this was not the infirmary, but the first chapel of the House but it must be remembered that the Hospital is not supposed (Cooper's Mem. Camb. 11. 58) to have at first had any ecclesiastical character, although it was very soon found requisite to add the brethren, for the purpose doubtless of superintending it. This may or may not be true, for I know of no documentary evidence in proof of it. I believe that this room never was properly a chapel, but an infirmary, and that the only sacred part of it was the oratory at its end. There was therefore no desecration in the uses to which the major part of it was finally applied, whatever we may think of those of the eastern end. If this was the chapel of the house, it seems unaccountable that they should have had another chapel erected for their use as early as the last quarter of the x111th century: but if the older building was the infirmary, nothing is more probable than the desire to possess a chapel distinct from it. We cannot avoid some wonder when we find that so large a chapel was built for so small a society.

Let us endeavour now to trace the history of the infirmary after the dissolution of the Hospital. It is not known to what use, if any, it was applied by the earliest members of the college; but in 1560 Fisher's and Ashton's chapels were deprived of their altars; the upper part of the former was turned into a chamber for the advantage of the master; the infirmary converted into a stable for the master's horses, and its eastern part (the oratory) made into a store-house for the college. This happened when Leonard Pilkington was master (Baker, 153). That this was the position of the stables in 1574 when Caius wrote his work, De Antiquitate, &c., is shewn by Baker (43) from the college books: and Caius (106) says that the stables were in the ancient chapel of the hospital.

264

On some Remains of the Hospital of St. John, &c.

His words are: "Vetus sacellum fratrum Sancti Joannis Evangelista (quod jam Collegii Sancti Joannis stabulum est").

In 1587-8 the horses and goods were removed and the building divided into three floors of students' rooms, as it continued to be until 1863. The words quoted by Baker (184) from the Liber thesaurarii are, "Hospitium novum intra præcinctum collegii, ubi olim erat hospitale D. Johannis, &c."

This concludes all that I have to state concerning these interesting and ancient buildings, of which every trace must unfortunately soon be removed. In one point of view we may well rejoice that the Infirmary is gone, for as students' rooms it was a disgrace to the College.

29 Feb. 1864.

CHARLES C. BABINGTON.*

POSTSCRIPT: It may be interesting to record in connection with the alterations now in progress that the removal of the panneling of the Combination Room and the Master's Diningroom has shown that the former room once had a large central window opening towards the west with a door on each side of it in the western wall; one door continued in use until the room was dismantled recently, and was the entrance from the second court, the other had long since been closed but originally opened into the space now occupied by the north side of the Second Court. It also appeared that the Diningroom had a corresponding large window opening towards the These two windows must have been closed at the time when the gallery was erected which some persons suppose preceded the Second Court, certainly could not have continued after the erection of the north side of that Court.

west.

* The Editors of The Eagle desire to express their thanks to Prof. Babington for permission to reprint this paper, which originally appeared in the "Antiquarian Communications" (Vol. 2. p. 351) of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and also for kindly allowing them to make use of the illustrations which are his property.

GLASS PAINTING.

PAINTED windows are allowed to be the richest and most magnificent application of art to the interior decoration of monumental buildings. Who has not stood magic-stricken in one of our ancient cathedrals before an array of gorgeous windows, pourtraying the legends of saints and martyrs, dazzling the eye with their brilliant and ever-varied colours; beautiful at all times, when the bright sun pours his rays upon them, and

Fills the church with gold and purple mist;

or when the peaceful twilight hour invites to contemplation as its mysterious shadows fall around us?

To the archæologist they possess an additional interest; all the old painted windows have something characteristic of the period to which they belong. The modifications which successively appear in them offer points of the deepest interest for observation and comparison, while they are at the same time the seals of their respective æras. These distinctive marks exist not merely in the painting, but also in the general conception of the entire work. It is not difficult to assign reasons for the favour which has so generally been bestowed upon glass painting; the brilliancy and liveliness of the colours of which this substance is susceptible on account of its transparency will always secure it a high degree of esteem from lovers of the fine arts; indeed, detriment to glass painting is rather to be feared from the opposite extreme-indiscriminate praise, as it is no uncommon thing to hear persons unacquainted with the subject speak in very high terms of examples whose debased style is only exceeded by the poverty of their colours.

The art of painting on glass by no means consists in the mere application of the colouring materials to the surface of the glass, by methods similar to those employed in oil painting. The colours used are of a peculiar kind, and possess the power of vitrifying at a high temperature, and of

fixing themselves unchangeably on the glass; consequently the glass, after the paint has been applied, must be exposed to a certain heat in a furnace adapted to this purpose. Appropriate means must also be employed in the application of vitrifiable colours.

A painting on glass-as, for example, a church windowalways consists of a great number of pieces of coloured glass, whose various hues illuminate an ornamental pattern or an historical subject. These pieces of glass are either symmetrical or irregular, so as to agree with the sentiment exhibited in the composition itself. After they have been arranged in their proper places, they are encased in lead, and united so as to form one complete piece. These pieces are united by an iron frame-work called the arming. Thus the arts of the painter, chemist, and glazier are severally called into requisition.

A very general notion prevails that the artists of modern times, having lost many of the receipts of the ancients, are unable to equal the intensity of their colours. On this subject a modern German writer makes the following remarks: "A very natural question presents itself to the mind, with regard to the erroneous belief which universally prevails, that the secrets of the art which were known to the ancients are lost. Are we capable, if not of surpassing, at least of resuming and continuing their labours? When we compare the glass of the old church-windows, of any period whatever, with the glass of our manufactories, we cannot for a moment doubt that our system of manufacturing it produces far more perfect results, certainly as far as regards its transparency, whiteness, and clearness, and generally with respect to all those qualities which are peculiar to glass. Besides, it is allowed that the methods of working have been considerably improved. And if, on the other hand, we compare fragments of old painted glass with that which we manufacture at the present day, it will appear in the most convincing manner, that our painted glass is not in the slightest degree inferior in point of colour to that of the ancients. There was a time when the manufacture of coloured glass was discontinued; because, in consequence of the decline of the art of painting on glass, this article was of no further use; but none of the secrets of the colouring were lost. Persons who were little aware of these circumstances, mistaking the effect for the cause, maintained that the reason why the art yielded nothing more was, that the painters on glass no longer understood how to produce the ruby of the

ancients. But this assertion was very soon shewn to be false; for as soon as the determination to restore painted windows manifested itself, the glass-house of Choisy in France, among others, proved by the most successful results, that the art of manufacturing coloured glass was in no way lost, but only asleep. In fact, we possess a multitude of receipts of the ancients, according to which coloured glass was produced in former times."

This beautiful art, doubtless, had its origin in the symmetrical arrangement of pieces of glass of various forms and colours, combined with more or less skill, being in fact transparent mosaics. It was with windows such as these that the ancient basilica was adorned; two centuries later they are mentioned by Gregory of Tours, and Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, extols in several passages of his poems the brilliancy of the coloured windows of his time.

The charm of these beautiful mosaics naturally induced a wish to trace upon them figures and subjects-to invest their magic hues with form, and, as it were, breathe life and soul into them; but the question, at what period the art of glasspainting with enamel colours was first introduced, has been the subject of much controversy.

Though no examples of the first attempts of painting objects on glass remain to us, we must not forget that this art originated at a time when taste had not yet been refined by long practice; hence the preference would naturally be given to that kind of painting which was most capable of seducing the eye by the brilliancy of its hues. Devoid of grace and beautiful outline, the sole charm of the glass painting of this early age lay in a skilful combination of colours, and thus was little, if at all, in advance of the mosaics which had preceded it.

Anastatius Bibliothecarius, who wrote at the end of the ninth century, in his life of Leo III. relates that this pontiff caused the church of S. John Lateran to be decorated with coloured glass, Fenestras de absida ex vitro diversis coloribus conclusit; but we cannot infer from these words the existence of any painting whatever upon the windows employed. We must therefore consider it as very nearly established, that painting upon glass was unknown in the ninth century; for had it been known, the popes, so zealous in ecclesiastical decoration, would not have failed to welcome with delight this new means of embellishment, and Anastasius would surely have alluded to so splendid a style of ornamentation.

As times of war and calamity are invariably unfavourable