Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/69

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12 s. vin. JAN. is, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 53 The glaziers, some thirty in all, were certainly impressed from various parts of England. On the other hand they were paid good wages, the master glaziers receiving 7s. a week each, and the lesser grades in proportion to their tasks, while they were allowed a fortnight's holiday at Whitsuntide. The work of glazing the windows of St. Stephen's Chapel at Westminster appears to have lasted from June 20 to Nov. 28, 1351, and early in March, 1352, the craftsmen commenced work upon the glass intended for Windsor, which, in turn, was finished by Michaelmas of that year. The completed panels were not inserted in the windows of the Castle Chapel and Chapter-house until the next year, as may be proved by the following entries in the fabric rolls for the week beginning, Mar. 18, 1353 : Paid for 18 elm boards for making boxes for carrying the. panels of glass from Westminster to Windsor . . . . 3" 36 elm boards of the same, a piece 4 d . . 12" 8 U Carriage of the same from London to Westminster . . . . . . . . 5 1 for Hay and Straw to put in the boxes 14 d 300 nails for making the said boxes 12 d whilst there is a further payment of 18s. to John Talwych for freightage of his 'shout " or sailing barge, carrying 6 boxes of glass from Westminster to Windsor. It should also be pointed out that im- pressment of labour was not confined to these few glaziers. Between 1350 and 1377 King Edward III. carried out very extensive building operations at Windsor, during which several successive Clerks of the Works were appointed (amongst them William of Wykeham, afterwards Bishop of Win- chester). Each of these officials was given power to impress men and set them to work upon the King's works at Windsor. The same practice still prevailed in later reigns. Thus in 1390 Letters Patent were granted to Geoffrey Chaucer, Esq., Clerk of the King's Works in the Palace of West- minster, the Tower of London, and else- where, authorizing him to choose and set to work masons, carpenters, and other workmen about the necessary repairs of "Our Collegiate Chapel of St. George within our Castle of Windsor " ; whilst in 1472 King Edward IV. granted similar powers to " our dearly loved cousin the venerable father in God, Richard, Bishop of Salisbury, Master Surveyor of the King's works at Windsor." Nor was this power of impressing labour entirely confined to home- service, in 1370 William Wynford, one of the Royal masons, was ordered to retain workmen for the King's works "beyond the Seas."* Again we find King Henry V. on hi& second expedition to France in 1416 au- thorizing Thomas Morstede, his only Army surgeon, forcibly to impress as many surgeons as he needed, together with a suitable number of mechanics for the making of surgical appliances and to embark them in the port of Rye.f Previously to this the King had asked the London Corporation of Surgeons to supply him with a dozen volunteers for the use of his Army and it was upon their failure to comply with his wishes that he resorted to- to drastic measures. 4. MR. KNOWLES'S concluding suggestion that the east window of Great Malvern Priory representing the Passion of our Lord is probably a later work of John Thornton's, may easily be tested by a single reference to the St. William window at York Minster with which he compares it. A panel i from the latter window depicting Robert and Richard, two sons of the donor (William, seventh Baron de Ros) and his wife Margaret, shews that the canopy shaft is enriched with a small figure standing on a base beneath a projecting canopy. This is a very common characteristic of the York school of glass- painting but does not appear in the east window of Great Malvern Priory. JOHN D. LE COTJTEUB. Winchester. BOTTLE-SLIDER (12 S. vii. 471, 516; viii. 37). The large ornate plated specimens^ with florid mounts must have been con- temporary with the introduction of heavily cut glass decanters with which they were- formerly used. They were also manu- factured in silver, inlaid wood and japanned ware to-day, almost invariably made in electro- plate when for hotel use. They are described as "bottle trays," or "bottle stands " in the old Sheffield makers' pattern

  • ' A History of Winchester College,' p. 109,

A. F. Leach, F.S.A. t This incident is graphically depicted in The Illustrated London News for Sept. 6, 1913, by Mr. A. Forestier to whom I am indebted for several interesting particulars. J The panel in question is illustrated in the Handbook on Stained Glass, published by the- South Kensington Museum (p. 64, fig. 43).