Stained Glass Tours in England

Charles Hitchcock Sherrill’s Stained Glass Tours in England has a foreword saying the purpose of the book is the quest of windows, and that in the search of them we shall obtain a very comprehensive idea of English architecture. The foreword says the book visits many noble cathedrals, among them Canterbury, York, Winchester and Wells, and smaller religious edifices such as Fairford, St. Neot and Norbury. The text divides English glass into Early English, which will include all the glass prior to 1280; Decorated, 1280 to 1380; Perpendicular, 1380 to 1500; and Renaissance, 1500 to 1550.

The writer says that, in company with two friends, he was rowing down from Oxford to London, and having arrived at Dorchester after sunset, stopped there to spend the night. The text describes two large windows dating from the end of the Renaissance period (1621) and contemporary with the chapel they adorn. The text says of windows from the day when colour was applied to glass by enamelled painting that the serious technical defect of that method, the tendency of the enamel to peel off, is here noticeable in several spots.