Excursion on Wednesdai/, August Zift/i. 11 



history and the general scheme of illustration in the windows had 

 been read — the conclusion to which he came after noticing the 

 traditions (1) of the glass having been captured at sea by John 

 Tame, and (2) of its being the work of Albert Durer — being that 

 it was made for the Church, in England, with perhaps the aid of 

 Flemish and German artists. 



This grand series of twenty-eight windows was undoubtedly the 

 chief attraction of the Meeting to very many of the Members, and 

 a considerable time was devoted to the inspection of them. They 

 are now to be seen to much greater advantage than formerly, inas- 

 much as they have recently undergone a most careful process of 

 re- leading and repair — many portions which had been misplaced 

 having been restored to their proper positions, and in cases where 

 portions are altogether lost the space has been filled in with plain glass 

 without any attempt at " restoration " beyond showing the probable 

 outline of the parts of the figures lost, in lead. The good offect of 

 . this very judicious treatment is the more apparent in comparison 

 with the great west window, which some time ago was " restored " 

 on the principle then prevalent of endeavouring to replace the old 

 glass with new, the result being a singularly disastrous effect.^ 



On the architecture of the Church itself a paper was read by Mk. 

 F. W. Wallee, under whose careful superintendence the late works 



* In reference to coloured glass a very interesting point was mentioned by a 

 Member of the Gloucestershire Society, Me. F. F Tuckett, F.E.G.S., who has 

 paid much attention to the matter, viz., that one infallible way of distinguishing 

 ancient from modern glass is by the fact that when the sun shines on old glass 

 it transmits no colour to the walls or other objects on which the sunbeams fall, 

 whereas when it shines on neiu glass the colours are transmitted. Mr. Tuckett, 

 in a short paper he has written on the subject for the Clifton Antiquarian Club 

 (December, 1887), asserts that he has tried the experiment at Fairford itself, at 

 Chartres, at Oxford, Lichfield, Bristol, &c., always with the same result, and 

 that although the fact is by no means generally known, he is fully confirmed in 

 his statement by others who have specially studied the finest specimens of old 

 glass at Chartres and elsewhere. He attributes this fact not so much to any 

 inherent difference between the make of the old glass and the modern — though 

 the more ancient glass was certainly less clear than the modern — but to the fact 

 that glass when exposed to the atmosphere undergoes a slow but certain de- 

 composition on its outer side, the effect of which is to render it impervious to the 

 sun's rays so far as the transmission of colour is concerned, even though the 

 colours of the glass itself may appear as brilliant as ever to the eye. 



