40 ON COLOUR. Paet 1. 



should there be any large space covered with one unbroken 

 colour. At the same time the caleidoscope minuteness pro- 

 duced by putting together numerous small pieces of coloured 

 glass should be avoided, having a paltry and spotted 

 appearance ; and proclaiming poverty of invention, and im - 

 perfect knowledge of design. The want of sufficient space 

 for the grounds is also a fault; and the juxtaposition of 

 several medallions, or compartments of similar form, with 

 little or no ground between them, is fatal to the effect of a 

 window, being monotonous and tiresome to the eye; and 

 some variety in the form, as well as in the contents, of several 

 of the medallions, is more pleasing than the constant re- 

 petition of the same. The borders should be equally varied, 

 as in the windows of the 1200, where they frequently have 

 arabesque scrolls and other patterns, with a due quantity of 

 blue, red, and yellow, and sometimes a little green, according 

 to the design in the centre of the light, with which the border 

 should always accord in motive and colour. In the medallions, 

 while the primaries predominate, brown, purple, and orange, 

 and some mixed colours are admitted ; and round each of 

 these is an edging of one or more colours, in order to frame 

 it and separate it from the ground. This edging is often 

 red, blue, or yellow, according to the colour required, with a 

 rim of very light neutral colour, supposed to answer to white, 

 but which is mostly of a greenish hue ; and the best windows 

 have the least transparent, or translucid, white glass. When- 

 ever this is introduced in quantity, it spoils their appearance, 

 causes them to look hard, and cuts out the medallions too 

 harshly from the ground. It is still more objectionable when 

 in contact with the lead lines, as it makes them too pro- 

 minent, and injures that effect which is produced by their 

 judicious employment. 



28. The use of much white glass, whether transparent or 

 translucid, in a coloured window, is one of those fatal mis- 



