of mediæval glass, nearly all of the original work of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries remaining in place, and, for the most part, in good condition. Though a fragile form of art, stained glass is, if undisturbed by accident or violence, one of the most permanent. But, unhappily, either accident or violence has despoiled the greater number of French cathedrals of the greater part of their ancient glass. Chartres, however, singularly fortunate in retaining its magnificent jewel-like window-screens, exhibits in its internal aspect, more than most other mediæval churches, the effect that it originally had.
Among other remaining examples of Gothic design in stained glass are the three magnificent roses of the Cathedral of Paris—those of the transept, and that of the west end, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century. Other fine examples of about the same epoch, though much restored at different times, are the windows of the Sainte Chapelle, and some of those in the Cathedrals of Bourges and Reims. As a general rule the effect of the French interior is now much injured by the extensive prevalence of modern grisaille, or, still worse, by wretched modern painted glass, in which the pictorial idea assumes an undue prominence, and the natural conventions and beauties of glass are lost.
