Robin' and attributable to Winstanley or his imitators are: 'Poor Robin's Pathway to Knowledge' (1663, 1685, 1688); 'Poor Robin's Character of France,' 1666; 'The Protestant Almanack,' Cambridge (1669 and following years); 'Speculum Papismi' (1669); 'Poor Robin's Observations upon Whitsun Holidays' (1670); 'Poor Robin's Parley with Dr. Wilde,' 1672, sheet in verse (Huth Library); 'Poor Robin's Character of a Dutchman,' 1672; 'Poor Robin's Collection of Ancient Prophecies,' 1672; 'Poor Robin's Dreams, commonly called Poor Charity' 1674 (sheet with cuts); 'Poor Robin 1677, or a Yea and Nay Almanac,' a burlesque on the quakers (annually continued till 1680); 'Poor Robin's Visions,' 1677; 'Poor Robin's Answer to Mr. Thomas Danson,' 1677; 'Poor Robin's Intelligence Reviv'd,' 1678; 'Four for a Penny,' 1678; 'A Scourge for Poor Robin,' 1678; 'Poor Robin's Prophecy,' 1678 (Brit. Mus.); 'Poor Robin's Dream . . . dialogue between . . . Dr. T[onge] and Capt. B[edloe],' 1681; 'The Female Ramblers,' 1683; 'Poor Robin's Hue and Cry after good Housekeeping,' 1687; 'Poor Robin's True Character of a Scold,' 1688 (reprinted at Totham Hall press, 1848); 'Curious Enquiries,' 1688; 'A Hue and Cry after Money,' 1689 (prose and verse); 'Hieroglyphia Sacra Oxoniensis,' 1702, a burlesque on the frontispiece to the Oxford almanac; 'New High Church turned Old Presbyterian,' 1709; 'The Merrie Exploits of Poor Robin, the Merrie Sadler of Walden,' n.d. (Pepysian Collection; reprinted Edinburgh, 1820, and Falkirk, 1822); 'Poor Robin's Creed,' n.d.
[Winstanley's Works; W.C. Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vii. 320-1, a full bibliography of Poor Robin by H. Ecroyd Smith; Huth Libr. Cat,; Brit. Mus. Cat.; authorities cited.].
WINSTON, CHARLES (1814–1864), writer on glass-painting, born on 10 March 1814 at Lymington, Hampshire, was the eldest son of Benjamin Winston, rector of Farningham, Kent, by his wife Helen, daughter of Sir Thomas Reid, first baronet. His father, whose original name was Sandford, assumed that of Winston in accordance with a provision in the will of his maternal grandfather, Charles Winston, sometime attorney-general of Dominica. Having been educated at Farningham by his father and Weedon Butler, he became a student of the Inner Temple at the age of twenty, at first reading in the chambers of Samuel Warren [q. v.] He practised several years as a special pleader, and was called to the bar in 1845, after which he went the home circuit. He was much employed in arbitrations and drawing specifications of patents, his knowledge of machinery being much valued. He frequently acted as deputy county-court judge, particularly in Staffordshire for Serjeant Clarke.
Notwithstanding his large practice, Winston devoted much time to the study of the fine arts, more especially architecture and glass-painting. On the latter subject he became the leading English authority. Having in his youth made the acquaintance of Miller, the professional glass-painter, he applied the knowledge acquired from him in designing and assisting to construct a small coloured window in the chancel of Farningham church. He continued throughout his life to occupy himself with painting on glass in all its branches, theoretical and practical. The numerous tracings which he made of interesting and curious ancient glass were admitted by experts to have caught with great fidelity both the design and the colouring of the originals, and he was consulted in reference to the windows which were made for Glasgow Cathedral and St. Paul's. Towards the end of his life he gave himself up chiefly to the scientific side of his subject. He made numerous and elaborate chemical experiments with the assistance of his friend Charles Harwood Clarke, which led to a great improvement in the manufacture of coloured glass. He claimed also to have discovered the secret of the mediæval processes. At the same time he was strongly opposed to a servile imitation of mediæval models. A somewhat severe criticism of his opinions is contained in an article in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ for January 1867.
Winston was one of the earliest members of the Archæological Institute. His first published essay, an article on painted glass, appeared in volume i. of its journal. The nucleus of his first considerable work was a small manuscript circulated privately in 1838, in which he attempted to treat the subject of glass-painting by arranging it on the method of Thomas Rickman's ‘Gothic Architecture.’ In 1847, when further materials had been collected, he was persuaded by Parker to publish his results under the title of ‘An Inquiry into the Differences of Style observable in Ancient Glass Paintings especially in England, with Hints on Glass Painting.’ The second part of the work consists of plates executed by Philip Delamotte from Winston's own drawings. The work was reissued in 1867 with additional plates.
Winston's next publication was ‘An In-
