s. Our ancestors
used to make free use of colour for the purpose of architectural
decoration, and employed several means in order to produce the effect.
They sometimes used fresco, by means of which they produced pictures
upon the walls covered with plaster while the plaster was wet. Sometimes
they employed wall-painting, _i.e._ they covered the walls when the
plaster was dry with some pictorial representation. The distinction
between fresco and wall-painting is frequently forgotten. Most of the
early specimens of this art are monochromes, but subsequently the
painters used polychrome, which signifies surface colouring in which
various colours are employed. The vaulted ceilings, the timber roof, the
screens and canopies, the monuments with their effigies, as well as the
surface of the walls, were often coloured with diaper-work. Colour and
gilding were marked features in all mediaeval buildings, and even richly
carved fonts and sculptural monuments were embellished with this method
of decoration. The appearance of our churches in those times must have
been very different from what it is now. Then a blaze of colour met the
eye on entering the sacred building, the events of sacred history were
brought to mind by the representations upon the walls, and many an
unlearned rustic acquired some knowledge of biblical history from the
contemplation of the rude figures with which his village church was
adorned.

"Even the very walls of this dread place,
And the tall windows, with their breathing lights,
Speak to the adoring heart."

The practice of painting the walls of our churches dates as far back as
Saxon times; but very few fragments of pre-Norman art remain. Of Norman
work we have numerous examples, and sometimes it is found that the early
specimens of the art have been painted over in later Gothic times, and
ruder and larger figures have eclipsed the more careful work of previous
ages. An example of this was discovered in the church of St. Lawrence,
Reading, where no less than five distinct series of paintings were
discovered, painted one over another.

[Illustration: THE CRUCIFIXION, HATFORD, BERKS]

Several circumstances have combined to obliterate these specimens of the
art of former days. It was not the intention of the Reformers themselves
to destroy them. They distinguished carefully between "an embossed and
gilt image, and a process of a story painted with the gestures and
action of many persons; and commonly t