[1] Pliny's word "nitrum" does not mean what we call nitre, which is potassium nitrate, but natron, or natural carbonate of soda, of which deposits are found in the Nile Delta. It is this that is meant in the passage in Jeremiah: "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope...."

[2] These panes are, I believe, of cast glass; but I have seen Roman window glass found at Silchester that was obviously "blown" glass and of very good quality.

[3] By some writers it has been claimed that the whole idea of stained-glass work was derived from cloisonnÉ enamel; but from the fact that the glazing of windows in glass and metal had been known long before, I think the course of events I have suggested above to have been more probable.

[4] There is some at Augsburg and at Tegernsee in Bavaria which may perhaps be a little earlier, but it is not certain.

[5] It seems to have been the practice of glass-workers in the Middle Ages to describe the different colours in glass by the jewel they most nearly resembled. A survival of this at the present day is their universal habit of calling red glass "ruby."

[6] Some critics have thought the figure merely a copy from an earlier design, but I cannot agree with them.

[7] The little piece of white with yellow stain under the right toe is, of course, a fifteenth century scrap.

[8] Were it not for the difference in the source of the light one would be reminded of Kipling's lines:—

"The first are white with the heat of Hell and the second are red with pain,"

and

[9] This is a later feature, and found at Bourges and elsewhere.

[10] The miraculous budding of Aaron's rod was considered a type of the Virgin Birth.

[11] "Westminster Abbey and the Kings' Craftsmen."

[12] This is not altogether conclusive. The fleur-de-lis and castle had been a favourite ornament in French glass since their adoption by St. Louis.

[13] From the east.

[14] In 1306 this would be William de Greenfield, under whom the nave was building, and in 1320 William de Melton, who finished it.

[15] Lasteyrie would have it that the existing windows represent this glazing,—an extraordinary mistake for him to make,—but it is just possible that they contain figures from the older windows.

[16] Perhaps it is unfair to blame Thornton, for in the contract he undertakes to work "secundum ordinationem Decani et Capituli."

[17] This is thought by some to be a piece of something else inserted here, but its effect on the design is very happy.

[18] It is true that the glass is not now in its original position, but I think it must always have filled two lights.

[19] This is fully gone into by Canon Carbonel in an article in Memorials of Old Gloucestershire. Another theory he examines and rejects is that they were the work of the Dutch painter Aeps.