mosaic of a sparkling jewel-like effect with translucent colour the Munich school substituted the cheap and ready fashion of painting whole designs pictorially in the most naturalistic manner on large sheets of glass. The result was a pictorial transparency, not a piece of stained glass. In the old work the leading-up was one of the most essential points in the art, every cut and every line of the lead, being conceived with a view to enhance the design in a strictly conventional manner, and with full regard to the limitations of glass as a medium for pictorial representation.

During recent years in England the art has been to a considerable extent recovered. The glass designed by Burne Jones, notably that at Birmingham Cathedral, also the glass by the late Charles Kempe, and the glass of Mr. Christopher Whall, who did the beautiful modern glass at Gloucester Cathedral, are exceedingly fine, and recall some of the qualities of the best old glass. Messrs. Powell, of Whitefriars, were responsible for some of the most important pioneer work in the modern revival of the art. In Ireland the work of the school founded by Miss Sarah Purser, R.H.A., and the glass of Mr. Harry Clarke is equal to any modern glass, and infinitely superior to any imported from the Continent. The chancel windows of Loughrea Cathedral by Mr. A. E. Child of Miss Purser's studio, and a pupil of Mr. Whall, is admirable and well worthy of a special visit, as is also the glass from Miss Purser's studio, and the splendid work of Mr. Clarke at the Honan Chapel, Cork. No medieval glass remains in Ireland, but there are numerous fine specimens in England. Amongst them may be mentioned the glass at York Minster, Merton College Chapel, Oxford, New College, Oxford, and King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Fairford Church, Gloucestershire, contains one of the most complete collections of old glass existing.

It is gratifying to observe that the work of these Irish artists in stained glass has gained, and continues to gain, wide appreciation far beyond the bounds of this country, and that the importation of stained glass has almost ceased.

In many modern churches what also militates much against the success and unity of the glass is the absence of any ordered scheme of glass design. Style, colour, treatment and subject should all be considered as a whole, and, as far as possible, the work of one artist or group of artists. With such a scheme laid down at the start, one window would follow another in natural sequence, and one window be a

complement to the other, in colour, style, and treatment, instead of jarring with it, as is too often the case. If really good stained glass cannot be afforded, it is much better to be content with honest leaded lights of simple pattern.

It may be incidentally remarked that many churches have too much light in them.

When one comes to deal with the subject of colour decoration in churches, one is struck by the almost entire absence of a really successful scheme anywhere. The decoration of most churches is obviously the work of the commercial firms, conceived without regard to the architecture, without any unity of purpose, or beauty of colour. The most that can be said is, that where good colours and plenty of gold have been used, the result is harmless. But how often, on the other hand, is one prompted to ask, on be holding acres of meaningless insipid stencil work with dull muddy colour, how much better would have been a simple colour wash, or the natural grey or white of the plastered surface. Artists skilled in decorative or applied art of any sort are very scarce in Ireland. The Dublin School of Art has turned out many capable artists, but owing to the want of patronage there is no inducement to the young artists to devote themselves to applied art. They take up other branches of art, become art teachers, or are lost to the country.

When a project of colour decoration is mooted, I think the first consideration should be to ask: Is it well to attempt a scheme, would a wash of colour meet the case, or perhaps would it be best to leave well alone? The answer to these questions depends on several things. Plaster forms an excellent field for colour decoration, and nothing can be finer than good colour decoration. There comes a time in the life of every plastered church when the question arises : Should the walls not be decorated or coloured? If there are ample funds available, and they must be ample, and an artist really capable of devising a scheme is at hand, then it may be contemplated without hesitation; it is, however, but seldom that such a fortunate conjunction of circumstance arises in this country. A well-conceived scheme of decoration, with plenty of gay colour, will, in capable hands, yield fine results. But if gold has to be eliminated, and reliance put on stock pattern stencil work, that is an indication that the work should not be attempted, or else limited to such an area that richness may be ensured.

A plain colour wash of some quiet tone, such as grey or light stone tint with a few points of pure colour, and perhaps gilding, may be made effective, while honest whitewash is by no means to be despised. The subject of colour decoration in churches is a large and most difficult one, and I merely briefly touch on some of the points which I think should guide anyone contemplating a scheme. Colour decoration itself might form the subject for many separate

papers.

The usual modern decoration of churches fails for various reasons-it is unarchitectural, too many wide surfaces of dull colour lack richness and interest, and the stencilling is allowed to run riot. The medieval practice was different, and sufficient examples of colour decoration remain to show how it was employed. In many of the oak church screens and pulpits, gold and colour, including panels of painted saints, were freely used. It was not usual to decorate the whole church. In addition to the other woodwork, the roofs were often decorated in colour. It was rather the practice to concentrate the colour, to use each tint in its brightest and purest form, and the principles of heraldic colouring appear to have guided these decorative artists of the Middle Ages to very good results. White was used, but of a parchment shade, not pure; green was a favourite colour, in fact the choice was limited to green, red, and blue, reinforced with gold, black and white. Blue was the customary colour for vaults and so forth, generally powdered with gold stars or devices. Carving is often gilded. Panels of green and red frequently alternate with mouldings of blue. Black is used in moderate quantities, sometimes twisted with gold like a barber's pole. Although such bright colours are used, they are not crude and do not clash. Large broad surfaces of any one colour were avoided, and the effect was to blend the colours harmoniously, the various bright colours being separated by white or gold. Yellow was often used in place of gold. East Anglia had the richest schemes of colour decoration, and stencilling and brushwork were common. Many of the coloured panels of pulpits and screens are enriched with gold powderings or painted figures. The stencilled patterns are of great variety; roses, fleur-de-lys, foliage, monograms, eagles, pelicans, and various symbolic devices. Sometimes black-letter inscriptions were successfully employed, and delicate patterns in raised plaster work or gesso, gilded, were used on the screens. In the East Anglian

decorative schemes, gold was freely used, with varying schemes of colour. At Heedham the screen is chiefly red and gold, at Ranworth soft gold and vermilion. At Ranworth and Hanstanton, Southwold, etc., are figure panels beautifully treated. The roofs in East Anglia were decorated with great skill and beauty. Other parts of England, especially in the west country, contain many examples of old decoration, but on a less elaborate scale than East Anglia.

Although we have in Ireland no remains of medieval mural colour decoration, save a few fragments here and there, the ancient Irish illuminated manuscripts are unequalled in the exquisite beauty of the colouring and design, and are full of valuable suggestion.

I have so far been speaking of colour decoration as meaning painting and gilding. There are of course other methods, mosaic for instance-here too it is better to cry 'halt' rather than proceed with a scheme of mosaic mural decoration, without the most ample funds. Cheap mosaic is nasty; good mosaic, and it requires real gold mosaic to reinforce it, is very costly. A third method is marble wall lining. Very effective results may thereby be obtained. A scheme of wall lining in Irish marbles, a soft grey predominating, and enlivened with a little gold mosaic, is safe, and is not prohibitive in cost, besides being very durable.

In the foregoing remarks I have touched upon the chief points in church building and decoration, just as they have occurred to me, and without the slightest attempt to deal with the subject in an exhaustive fashion. Possibly, however, what I have said may induce some reader to pursue the subject by looking into its literature. In this connexion I think works dealing with the various details of church design and furnishing are more likely to be helpful, and to repay study, than works treating of architecture or architectural history as a whole. Ruskin, Pugin, and that great French writer on architecture, Viollet-le-Duc, are, of course, excellent; but such works as the series of Mr. F. E. Bond and Dr. Cox, on the various details of the medieval church, Messrs. Howard and Crossley's fine volume on Church Woodwork, and Mr. A. L. Champney's work on Irish Ecclesiastical Architecture, will be found interesting; while, as treating of good modern church work, Recent English Ecclesiastical Architecture, by Sir Charles Nicholson and Charles Spooner, and American Churches, by James MacFarlan Baker, will give some idea of good modern work in England and America, respectively.

Three instructive works on stained glass are Stained-glass Work, by Christopher Whall; Windows, by Lewis F. Day, and Stained-glass Tours in England, by Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, an American writer. I may add, too, that in the National Museum, Dublin, we have a rich storehouse of art, beginning with early Christian art in Ireland down to modern times.

R. M. BUTLER.