ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 181 



As time went on, and the builders sought after change, 

 this tracery became elaborated into any form that pleased 

 the fancy of its designer, but rarely if ever did it miss 

 being beautiful. Of the windows of this period we have 

 very many examples, some of them very remarkable, as at 

 Checkley, where the wall is very largely pierced for its 

 windows, no doubt for the internal display of their painted 

 glass, of which a considerable portion now remains. At 

 Norbury, near .Eccleshall, at Wichnor, Elford, Cheddleton, 

 Leek, Bushbury, and Stretton (of which last we have a 

 drawing) there are beautiful examples. Indeed, they may 

 be said to abound throughout the county. Lastly, we 

 come to the Perpendicular window, which is distinguished 

 by the great size to which it attained and by the lines 

 of its divisions or mullions running perpendicularly from 

 sill to head. These windows range from two* lights up to 

 nine, and often nearly fill both gables and flanks. They 

 are sometimes crossed by a horizontal bar, called a tran- 

 some, which is frequently ornamented with the ever-present 

 battlements. Almost every ancient church possesses windows 

 of this character. The very -large ones in the south transept 

 of Lichfield Cathedral and in the west gable and clerestory 

 of St. Mary's, Stafford, will occur to everyone. Indeed it 

 would appear to have been a main object of the builders 

 of this later age to turn the more ancient walls as far as 

 practicable into glass. They took out every other style 

 of window and inserted their own. They built clerestories 

 which might have given rise to the idea of the first Crystal 

 Palace of 1851. And perhaps some will say they were 

 a befitting notification of that great spiritual and intel- 

 lectual light which shone upon this nation at the time at 

 which my sketch is to close. 



