dn't you think it would have been broken in all that time?"
ejaculated Jean.

"One would certainly have thought so," Uncle Bob agreed. "It seemed to
possess a charmed life. Most of that early glass was made by Flemish
refugees who had fled to England to escape religious persecution. Some
was designed for English monasteries. Houses, you know, did not have
glass windows at that time but depended for protection upon oiled paper
and skins. Glass was considered a luxury, and it was many, many years
before window glass or table glass was in use. Rich English families
bought glass dishes from galleys which, as Giusippe has told us, came
laden from Venice. Sometimes this Venetian glass was mounted in gold or
silver. There was, it is true, a little glass of English make, but no
one thought it worth using; in fact when the stained glass windows were
put into Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick it was expressly stated that no
English glass was to be used."

"How did glass ever come to be made here, then?" inquired Jean.

"Well, in time more Flemish Protestants fled to England and began
making stained glass at London, Stourbridge, and Newcastle-on-Tyne. In
1589 there were fifteen glass-houses in England. Then, because so much
wood had been used in the iron foundries, the supply became exhausted
and sea or pit coal had to be used instead. People were forced to try,
in consequence, a different kind of melting pot for their glass and a
new mixture of material; in this way they stumbled upon a heavy,
brilliant, white crystal metal which the French called 'the most
beautiful glassy substance known.' It was the pure white flint, or
crystal glass, for which England has since become famous. Immediately
it began to be used for all sorts of things. In 1637 the Duke of
Buckingham had flint glass windows for his coach, and he had some
Venetian workmen make mirrors out of it. So it went. A great many more
mirrors were made, great pier glasses with beveled edges. It is said
that some of those very mirrors are even now at Hampton Court. In the
course of time the English became more and more skilful at
glass-making, and when Queen Victoria came to the throne they were
manufacturing enormous cut glass ornaments and bowls, and decorating
their palaces and theaters with glass chandeliers which had myriads of
heavy, sparkling prisms dangling from them. You will remember that in
Venice you saw some glass chandeliers; and you may recall how
delicately fashi