Ornamented And Stained Glass.*

never gaudy , but always rich . Of a series of AYIIIdoAYS , in one green , perhaps , was made to predominate ; in another , blue , * and so oh . Just so were managed the windows in the clerestory of Sherborne Minster , by Clayton aud Bell , some years ago . Fifthly , excellence of design . This ,

Avith the rare management of colour in the thirteenth century windoAYS , gives them their greatest value . The design is always orig inal and full of invention and feeling , and always suited to the p lace it occupies . There was no particular laAV as to the introduction of canopies , or medallions , or

ornamental work . In the latter , colour Avas more considered than form , Avhich Avas always very severe and conventional . Bufc about the representation of the human figure , there has been the greatest diversity of opinion . I adhere to the opinion that has often been expressed ,

that the figure-drawing in the thirteenth century was of equal value with the sculp tures and Avail decorations of the same period ; that the artist did not see the necessity of representing the human figure in any other way than as symbolical representations ; as such they tell their stories Avell , and

in the simplest manner , and they always SIIOAY the qualities most valued in all other sacred illustrations , invention , feeling , and colour . Ruskin , in his " Stones of Venice , " has explained in a few words Avhat I feel greatly at a loss to express .:

—" Ifc did nofc take five centuries to find out the appearanpe of natural objects—but ifc toolc five centuries to make people care about representing them . An artist of the tAvelfth century did not desire to represent nature . His work was symbolical and ornamental . So long as ifc was intelligible aud lovely , bo bad no care to make ifc like nature : as , for instance , Avhen an old painter represented

the glory round a saint ' s head by a burnished plate of pure gold , he had no intention of imitating an effect of light ; he meant to fcell the spectator thafc the figure so decorated was a saint , and to produce splendour of effect by the golden circle . It was no matter to him Avhat light Avas like . So soon as ifc entered into his intention to represent the appearance of light , he Avas not long in dis-¦ covering fche natural facts necessary for his purpose . " ( To lie continued . )

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

SINAI AXD PALESTINE . The Dean of Westminster , after travelling with the Prince of Wales in the Holy Land , published a volume entitled Sinai and Palestine . Reading it lately it appeared to me there Avere some portions Avldcli -Might be acceptable to more than myself , and I accordingly transmit them AA'ith the following

observations : —The name Sinai is referred to the Avord Seneh , Avhich is the Acacia of the Hol y Land , the plant so famous in the legends of the Royal Craft . The mountain isknownformerl y to have abounded with acacia . Ifc is the tree of the burning bush of the Royal Arch , the shittim wood of the Tabernacle . Its botanic name is Nimosa Nilotica ; its trivial name Sont and Saynl .

Though the chief growth of the desert it is rare m Palestine . Abel-Shitfciin , " the meadows of the Acacias , " was about six miles from the Jordan . The acacia is never found on the mountains . —Ex . Ex . " High in the centre of the p latform of Mount Moriah rises the remarkable rock now covered hy the

dome of the Salcrah . It is irregular in its form , hut measures about sixty feet hy fifty . Ifc projects about five feet above the marble pavement , and the pavement of the mosque is about twelve above the general level of the enclosure , making this rise seventeen feet above the ground . Ifc appears to be the natural

surface of Mount Moriah ; iu a few places there are marks of chiselling ; but its south-east corner is an excavated chamber , to Avhich there is a descent hy a flight of stoue steps . This chamber is irregular in form , and its superficial area is about six hundred feet ; the average height , seven feet . In the centre

of the holloAV cave , there is a hollow slab of marble , which , being struck , makes a hollow sound , thereby showing thafc there is a well or excavation beyond . " This mass of rock , standing where ifc does , must alivays have been an unaccountable disfigurement of the Temple area . The time for arriving at a positive

conclusion respecting ifc is not yet come . But it may he worth Avhile to give the various explorations respecting it , fabulous or historical , during the successive stage of its knoAvn history . . " 1 . The Christians , before the Mussulman occupation of Syria , regarded ifc as the rock of the Holy of Holies , and as such , so different was the feeling of the Christian world with regard to the Old Testament between the fifth century and our own , used every

effort to defile it . " 2 . Regarded as the site of the Holy of the Holies hy Caliph Omar , it Avas then hy his successors invested with a sanctity only less than the Kaaba of Mecca ; believed to be the rock of Jacob ' s pillar at Bethel ; the stone of prophecy which would ha \ 'e fled in the extinction of that giftbut which was forcibly detained

, by the angels in anticipation of the visit of Mahomet to Jerusalem in his nocturnal flight , AA'hen it boAved to receive him , and retained the impression of his feet as he mounted the celestial Borak . Within the cave every prayer is supposed to be granted , and in the Avell are believed to rest the souls of the departed

between death aud the resurrection . " 3 . Recovered by the Crusaders , it was exhibited as the scene of Apparition of the angel of Zacharias , and of the Circumcision of Christ , as also of many other eA-ents in the G-ospel history of His life . The footmark of Mahomet was then represented as the

trace left ivhen He Avent out of the Temple to escape the fury of the Jews . ' 4 . In modern times it has been the centre of the most conflicting theories of sacred topography . Mr . Ferguson , chiefly from architectural arguments , has maintained that the dome of the Sakrah is the Church

of Coustantiue , and consequently thafc the rock beneath is the rock of the Hol y Sepulchre . Mr . Falconer and Mr . Thrupp suppose ifc to be the rock , or part of the rock , on which stood the town of Antonia . Prof . Willis urges its claim to be the rock of the threshing-floor of Araunah , selected by David , and aftei-Avards continued by Solomon and Zerubbabel as the unhewn stone on which to build the altar ; the cave Avithin being the sink described in the Talmud as that into