2 8. V. SEPT., 1919.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
251
0tt
[story of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers of the City of London. By Charles Henry Ashdown, F.R.G.S. With contributory notes by Percy W. Berriman Tippetts, Clerk and Solicitor to the Company. (Blades, East & Blades [1919], roy. 8vo, viii-163 pp., 8 plates. 12s. Qd. LMSEY'S ' History of the Worshipful Company
Glass-sellers of London ' appeared in 1898, t contributed little, if anything, of value to p knowledge of the history of glass in England [or to the Restoration. The volume before us als with a wider theme ; for the art of the tzier originally included glass-painting and lining and the records of this art go far back x> the Middle Ages. The subject naturally rides itself into two parts the art of window iss-making and that of the painter-glazier.
their inception both arts were under the tronage of the Church, and may be regarded monastic industries.
The early history of glass-making and the tmology of the craft are obscure, and as Jeames
la Pluche would have said, " wropped in retery," for the local industry nowhere appears
indigenous. The Sussex industry is thought have been of French extraction ; the Normandy iss-makers were not Normans ; the Lorraine iss-makers are said to have been of Bohemian igin. Of what race were these aliens ? Their cupation was an hereditary one and rigidly eserved by close intermarriage. On the Con- lent special privileges were claimed and con- ded by charter. Certain features in the history the craft suggest a Jewish origin, but this is a gression which cannot here be pursued, for the 3rk before us deals only perfunctorily with the story of English glass-making. The object of 5 authors is to trace the rise and fortunes of the mdon Company ; the earliest mention of which found in Guildhall Records of the year 1328. lis list is of considerable interest, as are the bsequent regulations adopted for the govern- ent of the Guild, but the later history of the jmpany fails to incorporate the results of cent investigation in the well-known treatise
Hartshorne, and the numerous articles in The ntiquary and ' N. & Q.' For instance, the lations of the foreign colony of glaziers to the Dndon Company in the reign of Henry VIII. e of supreme importance, for they show that
- the period when glass-painting had reached
3 height, the Crown patronage was almost Delusively bestowed on the Flemish glaziers of mthwark. The glazing at Fairford appears to ive set the fashion which was subsequently llowed at Westminster and Cambridge. The lemish colony prospered at the expense of the ondon glaziers. The latter appealed to the 3urt of Star Chamber, but apparently with different success for Flemish design continued > dominate English glass-painting right through te sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This itical period in the history of English glazing
represented in the work before us by a solitary jtition of the English glaziers in 1541-42. In lap. iv. the same want of familiarity with the nblished history of the art is shown. Isaac
Bongar, for instance, is introduced as an un-
familiar personage, although Hartshorne has
dealt with him at some length and with scant
courtesy. Bongar, the sworn opponent of Mansel
and Monopoly, asserted that his ancestors were
the first to introduce window glass-making into
this country. This much-commented-on state-
ment has generally been interpreted to mean that
Bongar came over with the French immigrants
early in the reign of Elizabeth, and helped to
spread the art of making " muff " glass through-
out the country. The late Mr. Cooper of
Chiddingfold, however, suggested to the present
reviewer that Bongar's statement may have
referred to an earlier immigration, as there was a
parcel of land in Chiddingfold still known as
' Bungler's Field." The whole history of the
Mansel Monopoly is set out with such detail in
Hartshorne's work that it was hardly necessary
bo go over the same ground again. Buckley's
[earned monographs on the taxation, &c., of
English glass do not appear to have been con-
sulted, and we have no disquisition on the intro-
duction, rise and fall of the English " Crown "
glass industry.
Notwithstanding these defects of omission we are sincerely grateful to the author for the publication of this work. It contains material of value and data that are now revealed for the first time. We did not, for instance, know of the existence of a glass furnace at Newgate in 1580, and there is much in this volume that will help the student of glazing to bridge the gaps, in the history of the craft. The volume is handsomely produced and will be sought after by collectors, and we look forward to its publication at no distant date in a second and extended edition.
Milton : Areopagitiea. With a Commentary by Sir Richard 0. Jebb ; and with supplementary material. ( Cambridge University Press, 3s. net.' ) MILTON'S famous plea for the liberty of the Press failed to achieve its object ; but it remains the finest of his prose works, and includes the most celebrated of tributes to England as " a noble and puissant nation." Jebb, as Mr. Waller explains in his brief foreword, printed privately the notes here given for a course of lectures as long ago as 1872. It was an excellent idea to publish them with additions by Mr. A. W. Verity, who is well known as one of the soundest editors of English classics, and particularly of Milton's poems. The volume thus ranks with the Pitt Press Series of Schoolbooks, and is admirably equipped for the use of students. Jebbs' mastery of the subject and his clear and graceful English make his notes ex- cellent. He did not deal in detail with points of English and allusions which wsre well worth bring- ing out, and Mr. Verity's work here fills out the scheme.
The only objection is that the two sets of note-? are not printed together, so that the student has to refer to two places to find whether there is any assistance for him. So much, however, is done nowadays for the learner that this little addition to his trouble should not matter. We are par- ticularly glad to see that the notes deal with derivations and give parallels for odd words or usages. This is the best way to fix them on the mind. We find, for instance, good notes on " its " and "monopoly," in each case with references to 1 Shakespeare's England.'
