first if not all of the painters and sculptors of Europe in the Middle Ages. Songs in honour of these human divinities were breathed into music by the great composers of that period. But when the Reformation laid its hand upon this sensuous worship, glass-painting became obsolete, if it had ever been introduced in England. Birmingham took a leading part in its renaissance, at the time when the genius of Baskerville, Boulton, and Soho was diffusing itself through the artistic industries of the town, and producing a simultaneity of progress in them all. In 1784 Francis Egerton first began to paint glass at Soho, and brought the art to such perfection that he was commissioned even to supply windows for the famous St. George's Chapel, Windsor, also for Lichfield and Salisbury cathedrals, for several of the colleges of Oxford, and for many parish churches in different parts of the country. That showy and luxurious Lord Mayor of London, William Beckford, gave him commissions to the value of £12,000 for windows for his Fonthill mansion. A specimen of the genius and workmanship of this pioneer in the art may be seen in the east window of St. Paul's, Birmingham. It may not stand scientific criticism, but may serve as a point of departure from which his successors progressed to higher attainments. The most eminent of these was Mr. John Hardman, who, in 1837, formed an intimate acquaintance with
