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( Eontcntg . PAGE Gothic Architecture and Operative Freemasonry—By Bro . W . P . Buchan 361 Masonic Celestial Mysteries—By Bro . Henry Melville 302 The Haughfoot Lodge and bpeculative Masonry—By R . S . ... 305 Masonic Notes and Queries 308 Correspondence 370

Laying the Foundation stone of the new Public Baths at Ashton-under-lyno 372 Masonic Mems 373 CRAFT LODGE MEETINGS : — Metropolitan 373 Provincial 37-1 . Scotland 377 Royal Arch 378

Mark Masonry 378 Antient and Accepted Rite 378 Theatrical and Musical Notes 370 Scientific Meetings for the Week 379 List of Lodge , & c , Meetings for ensuing week 379 To Correspondents 380

Gothic Architecture And Operative Freemasonry.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND OPERATIVE FREEMASONRY .

LONDON , SATURDAY , NOVEMBER G , 1869 .

By Bro . W . P . BUCHAN . [ Continued from page 347 ) . " Par more important than the introduction of the pointed arch was the invention of painted glass , which is really the important formative

principle of Gothic architecture ; so much so , that that there would be more meaning in the name if we were to call it the " painted glass style" * instead of the pointed arch style . " In all the earlier attempts at a pointed style ,

which have been alluded to in thepreceding pages , it was confined to the vaults , pier arches , and merely constructive parts , while the decorative parts , especially the windows and doorways , were still round-headed . The windows were small , and at

considerable distances , a very small surface of openings filled with plain white glass being sufficient to admit all the light that was required for the purposes of the building , while more would have destroyed the effect by the garish lightness

that is now so offensive in most of our great cathedrals . As soon , however , as painted glass was introduced the state of affairs was altered , the windows were first enlarged , as far as was thought possible without endangering the painted glass ,

with the imperfect means of supporting it then known . These consisted of strong iron bars , wrought into patterns in accordance with the design painted on the glass . All circular plans were abandoned , and polygonal apses and chapels of the chevet introduced and lastly , the windows

being made to occupy as nearly as was possible the whole of each face of these polygons , the lines of the upper part of the window came internally into such close contact with the lines of the vault , that it was almost impossible lo avoid

mating them correspond the one with the other . Thus the windows took the pointed form already adapted for constructive reasons in the vaults . This became even more necessary when the fashion was introduced of grouping two or three simple

windows together so as form one ; and lastly , when those portions of wall which separated these windows one from the other had become attenuated

into ninllions , and the upper part into tracery , until , in fact , the whole wall was taken up by the new species of decoration . " So far as internal architecture is concerned , the invention of painted glass was perhaps the

most beautiful ever made . The painted slabs of the Assyrian palaces are comparatively poor attempts at the same effect . The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians were far less splendid and complete ; nor can the painted temples of the Greeks , nor

the mosaics and frescos of the Italian churches ., be compared with the brilliant effect and partycoloured glories of the windows of a perfect Gothic cathedral , where the whole history of the bible is written in the hues of the rainbow by the

earnest hand of faith . " Unfortunately no cathedral retains its painted glass in anything like such completeness ; and so little is the orig inal intention of the architects understood , that we are content to admire the plain

surface of white glass * and to consider this as the appropriate filling of traceried windows , just as our fathers thought that whitewash was not only the purest , but the best mode of decorating a Gothic interior . What is worse , modern architects ,

when building Gothic churches , fill their sides with large openings of this class , not reflecting that a gallery of picture frames without the pictures is after all a sorry exhibition ; but so completely have we lost all real feeling for the art , that its absurdity does not strike us now .

"It will , however , be impossible to understand what follows , unless we bear in mind that all windows in all churches erected after the middle of the 12 th century were at least intended to be