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It may be reasonably asked, What fupplied the place of thofe materials before? To fatisfy this enquiry, it is to be observed, that feveral other materials are mentioned by ancient writers, as ferving the purpose before us; fuch as thin hides, or fkins, like our parchment, mentioned by Philopenus. Pliny likewife informs us, that the horns of the urus being cut into thin laminæ, were tranfparent, and fupplied, in fome measure, the ufe of our lanthorns; and we may probably conclude, from the analogy of things, that they served for window-lights alfo; especially, as we meet with windows made of horn (corneum fpecular) in Tertullian, who wrote within less than two hundred years after Pliny.

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To thefe, we may add the vela, made of hair-cloth, or pieces of hides, which Pitifcus (upon the authority of Ulpian) fays, were in use before the invention of windows of the lapis fpecularis, or glafs. Ulpian indeed, in the paffage Pitifcus refers to, only mentions them as fubfifting together with the lat

ter but it feems obvious to conclude, that the vela, being an invention lefs perfect and commodious, were prior in time to the fpecularia, which are to be regarded as a fubfe

quent improvement of the former. Notwithflanding this, the vela ftill continued in ufe, even after the introduction of window-fences of ftone or glafs, and ferved as canopies, or P umbrellas, to keep the fun from places expofed to the open air; as the others fecured the inner parts of the house from cold, &c.

I took notice 4 of the natural connection there seemed to fubfift between the ufing of plates of glass for adorning the infide of apartments in ancient times, and the employing them for introducing light into thofe apartments. This obfervation has been fupported by a letter I received from my learned correfpondent, abbate Venuti, at Rome, dated December 30, 1759, wherein he informs me, that he had lately read, in fome anecdotes of cardinal Maximi, "That as they were digging among the ruins on mount Cælius, in the laft century, they found a room belonging to an antique dwelling houfe, that had all its fides within ornamented with plates of glafs, fome of them tinged with various colours, others of their own natural hue, which was dufky, occafioned by the thicknefs of the mafs, of which they confifsted. There were likewife in the fame apartment, window-frames

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3.

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Pitifcus, Tit. Specular.

See the foregoing paper.

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reading, adopted by Salmafius, &c. is to be followed; viz.

Specularia puras Admittunt luces, et fine fole diem. L. viii. Epig. 14.

But other copies have it

Specularia puros

Admittunt foles, et fine face diem". This reading is efpoufed by Colleffus, the Dauphin editor, who fur ther explains (puros) by (nitides); and yet, in his notes, tells us, that thefe fpecularia were of ftone or talc; which they could not have been, confiftently with Philo's acCount, but must have been of glats; and confequently we thould have an evidence in Martial for the ufage of glass in windows, as early as the first century: for that poet lived in Rome from A. C. 71 to 100.

But perhaps thefe (feemingly) contradictory readings of the paffage may be reconciled, as to their fenfe, by interpreting puras (luces) in the one, and (puros foles) in the other, to mean the mild light and warmth of the fun, which remained after the greater part of its rays had been either reflected by the exterior furface, or abforbed within the interior pores of the stone; or, Milton expreffes it,

as

The fun fhorn of his beams. Upon this hypothefis fine face will fignify the exclufion, not of the rain, duft, &c. as it is explained by the commentators, who follow this reading; but that of the grofs body of the fun's rays; and fo will coincide with fine fole diem, in the other copies.

As I quoted z Lactantius (De

Officio Dei, c. viii.) to prove the use of glass in windows in his time, viz. the third century, I hold myfelf ob. liged to take notice of the cenfure, which Cortius and Longolius pafs upon this father, and which is as far from being candid, as the authorities they appeal to are from prov ing it true. Thefe gentlemen, in their notes on Pliny (L. ii. Ep. 17.), boldly pronounce the father mitaken (peccavit Lactantius) with regard to the paffage I produced from him and they fupport this charge, by referring to Lipfius on Seneca de Prov. C. iv. & Epift. 9o. and to Pliny, Hift. Nat. L. xxxvi. c. 26. Now, whoever confults Lipfius on the places here referred to by these editors, will find nothing therein, but obfervations relating to the lapis fpecularis, viz. the reafon of its name; the countries where it was found; its ufe in window-fences, for dining-rooms, bed-chambers, baths, porticos, and even in orchards and gardens. This is what nobody ever denied, and what even Lactantius himself intimates, in the a paffage before us. How, therefore, this can affect the father's teftimony, relating to the use of glass in windows, exceeds my imagination to conceive. And as for Pliny, I fuppofe it will readily be allowed ine, that no writer, how refpectable foever his authority may be, can poffibly prove another, who lived two hundred years after him, mis taken, when he alludes to the prac tice of his own times.

As I hope the evidence is now undeniable, which I produced in

my differtation, to prove the ufe of glass in windows to have been as early as the third century (not to mention the probable reasons there offered to fhew, that it might have fubfifted fome ages before), it may not be unacceptable to the curious in antiquity, to obferve the flow progrefs this very commodious invention made in travelling towards the weft fince it appears, by our hiftorians, that it did not reach our inland till the feventh century; when it was brought hither from France, either by Benedict abbot of Winal, or Wilfrid archbishop of York; aslanthorns of horn were introduced by king Alfred, about the fame time, viz. 680.

Having now propofed all I had to offer relating to the feveral uses of plates of glafs, already mentioned in my effay, I beg the Society's indulgence to permit me to fubjoin two others, which I have met with fince that communication.

The first of thefe was fuggefted to me by my (late) worthy friend Smart Lethieullier, Efq; who, laft winter at Bath, informed me, that he had in his collection an urn, of a quadrangular figure, which had been divided into two equal parts by a plate of glafs, the veftiges of which were ftill remaining. He was of opinion, that the cells made by this partition contained the remains of fome pair, eminent either for their conjugal affection, or fome of the other connections of focial life. This conjecture, highly probable in itself, is farther confirmed by fimilar examples in

antiquity. Thus we find in Montfaucon the figure of a square urn, wherein were contained the afhes of a man and his wife, as appears by the infcription upon it, Another urn is reprefented (plate lvii.), which held the ashes of a mother and her daughter. To which we may add a third (plate lv.), covered with a fquare flat table of stone, on which were three infcriptions, fignifying, that the remains of three perfons, whose relation to each other is not specified, were inclosed therein.

The other inftance was tranfmitted to me by the abbate Venuti, in a letter from Rome, dated September 27, 1759, viz. “That, in digging up fome ruins in that city a few years ago, there was found an ancient picture painted on marble, and covered with a plate of white glafs, like those used in our times for that purpofe, only fomewhat thicker. The picture expreffed a lady's head, and was of a very elegant compofition." From this laft circumftance, the abbate infers, "that it could not be the production of any later age;" meaning (I prefume) any period between the decay of good painting among the ancients, and the revival of it among the moderns. He further affures me, that he faw this picture, which (together with its cover) was depofited in the cabinet of the marquis Capponi at Rome.

The circumftance of this piece being painted on marble, naturally leads our thoughts up to the age of the fragments of glafs, which

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occafioned my differtation, viz. to the overthrow of Herculaneum, in whofe ruins four pictures (among many others) have been found painted on the fame materials. There is a paffage in Pliny, which has been thought to carry up this manner of painting as high as the times of Claudius, who began to reig A. C. 41. But I am humbly of opinion, that lapidem pingere, in this place, does not mean painting on ftone or marble, but only the ftaining them with artificial colours; as the remaining Part of the sentence relates to the inlaying of pieces of marble of various tints, where the original veins were defective, either in variety or beau ty: not that I think it at all improbable, at the fame time, that this fpecies of painting might be as ancient as the epocha mentioned above, viz. the reign of Claudius; because it actually fubfifted in the time of Pliny, which muft reach up to that æra; for the four paintings referred to in the beginning of this paragraph, as done in the fame manner, were found in the ruins of a city, (viz. Herculaneum), in whofe catastrophe that writer loft his life.

London, Feb. 3, 1761.

The art of painting on Glafs, not loft. From Mr. Walpole's anecdotes of painting in England. After giv ing his readers the life of Peter Oliver, Mr Walpole proceeds thus. THE long life of this perfon, eftimable for his own maerit and

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that of his family, ferved, almost alone to preserve the fecret of painting on glafs-a fecret which however has never been loft, as I fhall fhew in a moment, by a regular feries of the profeffors. The first interruption given to it was by the reformation, which banished the art out of churches; yet it was in fome measure kept up in the efcutcheons of the nobility and gentry, in the windows of their feats. Towards the end of queen Elizabeth it was omitted, even there, yet the practice did not entirely cease. The chapel of our lady, at Warwick, was ornamented a-new, by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and his countefs, and the cypher of the glafs-painter's name yet remains, with the date 1574: and in fome of the chapels at Oxford, the art again appears, dating itself in 1622, by the hand of no contemptible master.

I could fupply even this gap of forty-eight years by many dates on Flemish glafs; but nobody ever fuppofed that the fecret was loft fo early as the reign of James I. and that it has not perifhed fince will be evident from the following feries reaching to the prefent hour.

The portraits in the windows of the library at All Souls, Oxford.

In the chapel at Queen's-college there are twelve windows dated

1518.

PC a cypher on the painted glass in the chapel at Warwick, 1574.

The windows at Wadham-college; the drawing pretty good, and the colours fine, by Bernard Van Ling,e 1622.

In