Architectural Reveries.

a turbulent and almost lawless race of feudal nobles , in an almost constant state of petty Avarfare Avith each other , that they should be at once both house and fortress . The windows were the features most especially influenced in their treatment by this necessity . The Avails being built of

far greater thickness than was necessary for mere architectural solidity , the openings for light had to be pierced through this massive defence , giving to these " architectural eyes" a deep-set character and forbidding expression Avhich AA as increased by the necessity of making them as small as possible ,

consistent Avith the admission of a tolerable supply of light ; and they Avere as feAV and far betAveen as could be devised consistently with imperative requirements . The style of these buildings , designed by a truly artistic race of Mediasval architects , is almost invariably striking , and often beautiful—qualities Avhich have tempted modern architects to resort to absolute imitations of their

forms ; aud iu adapting them to modern residences , even the small size and small number of AvindoAvs have been observed Avith scrupulous accuracy . This observance has certainly had the effect of reproducing tho true Mediasval character of those buildings , but at the vast cost of appropriateness ,

and , Avhat is ivorse , at the expense of that proj ) er supply of light and air which , according to our modern notions , is most important , not only to comfort , but to health . The window , above every other architectural featureshould characterise and illustrate the

, epoch in Avhich it is designed . In all former periods it has done so , and wiry not HOAV ? This may be said to have been the case , even in the very earliest forms of the builder ' s art , Avliich fitl y suit and reflect the rude age for AA'hich they were constructed . In some of the primeval monuments

of barbaric architecture still in existence , the window is simply that wind-hole which is the parent name of the modern term ; and in that form it

tells plainly enough the story of an era in the very infancy of art of Avhich it is the rude artistic reflex . In later epochs , in the East , for instance , another example may be taken of the accurate reflex of contemporary manners exhibited in the domestic architecture of the period , and especially

in the character of the ivindoAvs . At the period alluded to , the luxuries of modern Oriental civilisation , after their kind , had begun to develop themselves ; the manufacture of glass had become more or less generally established , and its use adopted in all dAvellings of superior class , in Avhich

the luxury of more spacious Avindows Avas soon perceived Avhen they could be made to exclude the inclemencies of the Aveather , either by day or night , by a material Avhich did not exclude the light . But a difficulty occurred in adopting the more spacious AvindoAv , as openings thus increased

in size would at once become a far too vulnerable place of attack in a land Avhere countless tribes still exist Avhose natural profession is that of the

robber . To obviate this objection , the houses of the wealthy were built with their principal Avindows looking into an interior quadrangle or courtyard , often large enough to be treated as a garden , Avhile the external Avails had scarcely a single perforation Avorthy the name of AvindoAv . Here is a

p hase in the story of the Avindoiv Avhich is highly characteristic . It speaks eloquently of political misrule , and , at the same time , of that domestic jealousy Avhich the social institutions of Asia tend to develop and foster . It gives also a special character to most of the Asiatic toAvns—an aspect

, , in the main , desolate and uninviting , —for there are no glistening Avindows to look down upon and . ivelcome the stranger , nor to reflect the g-lories of sunrise and sunset , nor to afford those glimpses into the inner life of the dwelling ; ivhile all of these effects are such cheerful characteristics of

our Western and Northern cities . And , even as those Eastern dA \ elliugs meet us Avith no beaming look of welcome from sparkling- Avindow-lights , so , the women of that Oriental toAvn furtively pass those they chance to meet Avith eyes closely veiled , or AAuth only one cj'clop-like orb glancing from its half concealment ; and the analogy of the architectural and the human eye establishes itself agaiu .

SomeAvhat similar phases of domestic architecture and manners to those just referred to existed in Greece and Rome during the earlier periods of their civilisation , though modified to some extent by the nature of the freer forms of European institutions . From this and other causes the

" Avindow" never became an important feature in Roman architecture , either monumental or domestic . Nevertheless , both in Greek and Roman times , at a later period , there were Avindows—true windoAvs—not merely openings closed at night by the biclores , or Avooden shutters , but even

decorative AvindoAvs , in the houses of the rich , provided Avith regularly constructed frameAvork of Avood or metal , in which lamina ? of the transparent lapis specularis were fixed , somewhat after the manner of our modern glass ; and eA' -entually glass itself Avas used , though in very small pieces , as proved by remains of glazed AVJUCIOAVS disinterred at Pompeii .

But it Avas not till after the fall of the Roman empire , and the establishment of the modern kingdoms by the Northern races , that the true history of the windoAV commences ; and , to understand tho origin and development of the modern windoAV , it Avillbe necessary to take a rapid survey

commencing Avith the very daAvn of Celtic civilisation . Not glancing casually at various epochs and phases of art , but folloAving out with some degree of consecutive severity the gradual development of the window as a prominent artistic feature in one of the noblest of the fine arts .

The early dAvellings of the Celtic and Scandinavian races Ai ere , as recent discoveries have shown , of the simplest and rudest description ;