n books on the subject of ancient glass,
Winston, Westlake, &c., which give fuller details on this matter.

APPENDIX II

ON THE RESTORING OF ANCIENT WINDOWS

Let us realise what _is_ done.

And let us consider what _ought to be done_.

A window of ancient glass needs releading. The lead has decayed and the
whole is loose and shaky. The ancient glass has worn very thin, pitted
almost through like a worn-out thimble with little holes where the
alkalis have worked their way out. It is as fragile and tender as an old
oil-painting that needs to be taken off a rotten canvas and re-lined. If
you examine a piece of old glass whose lead has had time to decay, you
will find that the glass itself is often in an equally tender state. The
painting would remain for years, probably for centuries yet, if
untouched, just as dust, without any attachment at all, will hang on a
vertical looking-glass. But if you scrape it, even only with the
finger-nail, you will generally find that that is sufficient to bring
much--perhaps most--of the painting off, while both sides of the glass
are covered with a "patina" of age which is its chief glory in quality
and colour, and which, or most of which, a wet handkerchief dipped in a
little dust and rubbed smartly will remove.

In short, here is a work of art as beautiful and precious as a picture
by Titian or Holbein, and probably, as being the chief glory of some
stately cathedral, still more precious, which ought only to be trusted
to the gentle hands of a cultivated and scientific artist, connoisseur,
and expert. The glass should all be handled as if it were old filigree
silver. If the lead is so perished that it is absolutely impossible to
avoid taking the glass down, it should be received on the scaffold
itself, straight from its place in the stone, between packing-boards
lined with sheets of wadding--"cotton-wool"--attached to the boards with
size or paste, and with, of course, the "fluffy" side outwards. These
boards, section by section, should be finally corded or clamped ready
for travelling _before being lowered from the scaffold_; if any pieces
of the glass get detached they should be carefully packed in separate
boxes, each labelled with a letter corresponding to one placed on the
section as packed, so that there may be no chance of their place ever
being lost, and when all is done the whole window will be ready to be
gently lowered, securely "packed for removal," to the pavem