348 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES, 



which have given a name to these 

 papers. Honest Peter" Heylin, in 

 the preface to his Cosmography, 

 mentions, that " the affairs of each 

 town, or war, were better pre- 

 sented to the reader in the Weekly 

 News Books. (Universal Maga- 

 zine, 1792.) 



ANCIENT GLAZING OF WINDOWS. 



Although there are in this conn- 

 try many specimens of painted 

 glass of the twelfth century, that 

 material is not mentioned for or- 

 dinary glazing purposes in any do- 

 cument of so early a date hitherto 

 discovered. It seems probable that 

 it was originally confined to eccle- 

 siastical buildings, and that win- 

 dows in houses were simply closed by 

 wooden shutters, iron stanchions be- 

 ing sometimes introduced for greater 

 safety. That in some cases the 

 method of securing windows was 

 very inefficient, appears by an anec- 

 dote related by Matthew Paris. 

 When Henry .the Third was stay- 

 ing at the manor of Woodstock, in 

 the year 1238, a person who feigned 

 insanity made his appearance in 

 the hall, and summoned the king 

 to resign his kingdom ; the atten- 

 dants would have beaten and driven 

 him away ; but Henry, making 

 light of his conduct, ordered them 

 to desist, and suffer the man to en- 

 joy his delusions. In the night- 

 time, however, the same individual 

 contrived to enter the royal bed- 

 chamber through a window, and 

 made towards the king's bed with 

 a naked dagger in his hand ; luckily, 

 the king was in another part of the 

 house, and the intruder was dis- 

 covered and secured. Where win- 

 dows were externally mere narrow 

 apertures, widely splayed on the 

 inside, it is probable that there 

 were internal shutters ; but it is 

 clear, from early drawings, that 

 shutters frequently opened out- 

 wards, being attached by hinges 

 to the head of the window ; in such 



instances they were kept open by 

 props. It would appear that can- 

 vas, or a similar material, was oc- 

 casionally used instead of glass in 

 early times ; that it was employed 

 to fill in the windows of churches 

 before they were glazed, as early as 

 the thirteenth century, does not 

 admit of doubt, inasmuch as its ap- 

 plication to that purpose is specifi- 

 cally mentioned in the building 

 accounts of Westminster Abbey in 

 the reign of Henry the Third. 

 Whenever purchases of glass are 

 noted in ancient accounts we find 

 that it was bought at so much per 

 foot ; indeed, it may be observed, 

 generally, that there has been little 

 variation in the customs of trade 

 in this country since the date of the 

 earlicstrecordsexisting. (Turner's 

 Domestic Architecture in England.) 



THE MAMMOTH CAVE OP 

 3IARTINIQUE. 



That the Mammoth Cave is an 

 antiquity of the world before the 

 flood a city of giants which an 

 earthquake swallowed, and which 

 a chance roof of rocks has protected 

 from being effaced by the deluge, 

 and by the wear of the elements 

 for subsequent ages is one of the 

 fancies which its strange pheno- 

 mena force upon the mind. All is 

 so architectural. It is not a vast 

 underground cavity, raw and dirty., 

 but a succession of halls, domes, 

 and corridors, streets, avenues, and 

 arches all underground, but all 

 telling of the design and proportion 

 of a majestic primeval metropolis. 

 It is not a cave, but a city in ruins . 

 a city from which sun, moon, and 

 stars have been taken away Avhose 

 day of judgment has come and 

 passed, and over which a new world 

 has been created and grown old. 

 By what admirable laws of unknown 

 architecture those mammoth roofs 

 and ceilings are upheld, is every 

 traveller's wondering question. In 

 some shape or other, I heard each 



