GLASS. 501 



have been scarce and dear. The price, interpreted by present 

 experience and by the cheapness with which modern industry 

 and mechanical skill have made us familiar, was no doubt 

 high, but still not so high as to denote that the use of glass 

 windows lay without the means of persons who possessed 

 a moderate income. The facts which I have collected are 

 from the records of conventual or collegiate expenditure, or 

 from the accounts of wealthy persons; but the price does, not 

 shew that glass was a luxury unattainable except by the very 

 rich. Thus six glass windows are purchased at Lopham in 

 1368 at is. 6d. each, another for Bigod at Bungay in 1282 at 

 5-r. ; two others are set up in Cambridge castle under the year 

 1286 at 5-r. 6d. each; and at Schitlingdon a glass window is 

 made for the chapel at the cost of ly. ^d. in 1376. These 

 sums, if the windows were of any magnitude, cannot be con- 

 sidered excessive. The monks of Bicester, too, purchased glass 

 in 1320 to a considerable amount, paying \ 5^. 3^. for coloured, 

 and ^i 85-. 8d. for plain glass. It cannot too, I think, be 

 doubted that churches and cathedrals were glared, at least as 

 soon as the Decorated window superseded [the Early English, 

 and probably long before. 



I have no information as to the price of glass by measure 

 before the time of the Plague. In all probability this article 

 was affected by a rise, just as all other products were which 

 depended on manufacture for the greater part of their value. 

 But after this time there are five entries, one at Bondeby at 

 is. 6d. the square foot, two at Sheppey and one at Langley 

 at is. id., and lastly, one at Steeple Morden at 8d. These 

 figures seem to indicate that the price towards the conclusion 

 of the period was declining. 



Though the highest price is no doubt very considerable, 

 and the lowest is still large, yet the decline is notable, and 

 certainly denotes a rate which quite fell within the means not 

 only of the wealthier, but of the middle classes. Neither 

 merchant nor well-to-do yeoman needed, if he wished for the 

 indulgence, to debar himself the use of a material, a square 



