antiquities? The idea was repugnant, almost profane, to all true lovers of the Gothic order of religious worship. Happily they were not obliged to submit to this repulsive alternative. It was an ill wind of violence that had battered and broken the windows of Lichfield Cathedral; but a wind equally violent and destructive had blown upon convents and other religious houses on the Continent. There was a great amount and variety of stained glass to be found in the wreck of abbeys, of the best antiquity and imagery. Sir Brooke Boothby, travelling in Germany, visited the dissolved Abbey of Herckenrode, founded in 1182, and ornamented with the choicest specimens of the glass-staining art which the great masters of the sixteenth century could produce. He succeeded in buying up a good portion of this glass, consisting of 340 pieces, each about twenty-two inches square, besides a large quantity of tracing and fragments, at the low figure of £200, and transferred the purchase to the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral. It was a good bargain for them; as the amount purchased, estimated at the standard at which continental convent glass was afterwards sold in England, was worth £10,000. The whole expense of this beautiful glass bought by Sir Brooke Boothby, including transportation, arranging and fitting into the windows, was only £1,000. It was sufficient to fill seven of the large windows in the Lady
