WINDOWS. 191 



nection with this subject, light and heat appear to be rather 

 enemies than friends, and the object of the architect was to 

 enable the inhabitants of his houses to avoid rather than to 

 welcome both. Consequently, the Windows were comparatively- 

 insignificant. They were not needed for the purposes of light 

 or air, those being generally furnished by the aperture in the 

 roof, and consequently were kept out of sight as much as 

 possible. 



But when architects had to build for a sterner, a colder, and 

 a darker clime, where the sun never assumed that almost 

 devouring heat and light which in hot countries drive the 

 inhabitants to invent endless devices for obtaining coolness and 

 shade, a different style of Architecture sprang up. In this the 

 Window became nearly the most prominent part of the building : 

 the elements were excluded by glass instead of stone, and the 

 principal modifications of light were obtained by staining the 

 glass in various rich colours. Perhaps the Window has 

 attained its culminating point in the Crystal Palace, which is all 

 window except its foundations. 



Partly in order to enable the glass to be inserted, and partly 

 to increase the beauty of the building, and to avoid the mean 

 appearance of Windows filled in with plain iron bars crossing 



CADDIS GRATING. WHEEL-WDfDOW. 



each other at right angles, the interior of the Windows was 

 adorned with stone (( tracery,' ' varying much according to the 

 epoch of the building. 



One of the most beautiful forms of the Window is that 

 which is called the Wheel. The window itself is circular, and 

 the tracery is disposed so as to bear an exact resemblance to an 

 ornamental wheel, the lines of the tracery running from the 

 circumference to the centre, just like the spokes of a wheel. 

 One of these Wheel- windows is shown on the right hand of the 

 illustration. 



