PREFACE. 
queens, courtiers, ecclesiastics, warriors, civic rulers, benefactors, 
and others ; and they show the development in armour and in the 
ecclesiastical and secular costume. The progress of architecture 
is reflected in the subjects and also in the designs of the canopied 
niches. 
The composition of the subjects, the drawing and draping of 
the figures, the conventional ornament or the copying of natural 
foliage, with the wealth of brilliant colour, fill these windows with 
instruction for the inspiration of the artist, the designer and crafts¬ 
man of to-day. The windows remind us of the time when art was 
loved for its own sake, and they are valuable for the light they 
throw on the costumes and customs of mediaeval York. They 
form an essential part of the material available for historical 
research, and in this respect often furnish more useful information 
than the MSS. themselves. There is no finer collection of this 
characteristic product of the art of the middles ages to be found 
than at York. 
I am indebted to the works of previous writers on the subject, 
more especially to those of the late Mr. John Browne ; also to the 
late Mr., James Tate, and to his son Mr. E. Ridsdale Tate, for 
drawings and photographs; to Miss Mabel Leaf for the frontispiece; 
to Mr. Oxley Grabham ; to Mr. Wm. Watson for photographs, 
to the Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects for 
the loan of blocks, and to the Rev. Canon Watson for the repro¬ 
duction of some drawings of old stained glass which are in the 
Minster Library. 
As there is no work dealing with the ancient glass of York as 
a whole, this is an attempt to supply that want. 
GEORGE BENSON. 
i, Nunthorpe Avenue, 
St. Peter's Day. 1915. 
