e church, with scrolls
bearing inscriptions. We have, perhaps, few remains of ancient stained
glass in our churches of a period antecedent to the thirteenth century: of
this era, probably, are those curious circular designs which fill the
greater portion of the lights at the back of the sedilia in Dorchester
Church, Oxfordshire: one representing St. Augustine and St. Birinus, the
first bishop of that ancient see; another, a priest and deacon, the former
with the host, the latter bearing the ampullae. Of this period also is some
ancient stained glass in Chetwood Church, Bucks, the ground of which is
covered with a kind of mosaic pattern, a usual feature in the more ancient
stained glass, and the borders partake of a tendril foliage; whilst in
pointed oval-shaped compartments, forming the well-known symbol _vesica
piscis_, are single figures of saints and crowned heads, each clad in a
vest and mantle of two different colours. In the fourteenth century single
figures under rich canopies are common, but we begin to lose sight of the
mosaic pattern as a back-ground. The stained glass in the windows of the
choir of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is either very early in this, or
of a late period in the preceding century, and exhibits single figures
under rich canopies: over the head of one of these, (the kneeling figure
of a monk in his cowl,) is a scroll inscribed "_Magister Henricus de
Mammesfeld me fecit_." In the windows of Tewkesbury Abbey Church are
several single figures of this period, some of knights in armour. In the
chancel of Stanford Church, Northamptonshire, are single figures of the
apostles in painted glass, each appearing within an ogee-headed canopy,
cinquefoiled within the head and crocketed externally, and the sides of
the canopy are flanked by pinnacled buttresses in stages. Specimens of
stained glass of the fifteenth century are numerous in comparison with
those of an earlier period; we find such in the east window of Langport
Church, Somersetshire, where single figures occur of St. Clemens, St.
Catherine, St. Elizabeth, and of many other saints. Some splendid remains
of painted glass of the fifteenth century are likewise preserved in the
windows of the choir of Ludlow Church, Salop, mostly in single figures;
amongst them is the representation of St. George in armour, of the reign
of Henry the Seventh; the figures of the Virgin and infant Christ may also
be noticed. Towards the close of this century kneeling