52 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vm. JAN. 15, 1921. LIGHT AND DARK A HEADPIECE. Many books of no tab 1 e interest or instruction published during the period 1570-1641 have on the title-page, or elsewhere, a head- piece in which a light A (left) end dark A (right) are conspicuous. What is the origin of the device, and what interpretation can be placed upon this emblem ? R. L. EAGLE. 19 Burghill Road, Sydenham, S.E.26. TULCHAN BISHOPS. What are they ? In what countries are they found. I. F. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. I should be grateful to any reader of *N. & Q.' who would tell me the names of the authors of the following : 1. From 'December and January,' an article in Blackwood, February, 1886. " Though to-morrow, in the experience of most of us, has generally turned put to be very like yester- day, it is never necessarily so, and the heart that can still believe in to-morrow is the strength of humanity, and the hope of the world." 2. A novel entitled ' The Old (or Odd ?) Farm- house.' H. E. G. E. JOHN THORNTON OF COVENTRY, AND THE GREAT EAST WINDOW OF YORK MINSTER. (12 S. vii. 481.) IN the course of his very interesting paper upon John Thornton of Coventry, MR. KNOWLES raises several points which call for particular comment. 1. He is correct in stating that previous to 1405, nothing is known of John Thornton except that he was "of Coventry." It is quite evident from the details given in the contract with the Dean and Chapter of York, that he was a master glazier. But it is also at least permissible to suggest that prior to 1405, he had been employed at Coventry rather than at Nottingham. It must be remembered that, until the dissolu- tion of monasteries, Coventry was a town of great importance. In addition to its Benedictine Abbey, and several stately churches, it was the home of numerous wealthy merchants whose trading Guilds were amongst the foremost in the land.*
- For an interesting account of Coventry,
past and present, refer Dr. Button's ' Highways and Byways in Shakespeare's Country.' Such a town as this would be sure to- number glass-painters amongst its popula- tion. John Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, (1626-1697) tells us that when a schoolboy at Blandford in Dorset, he used to visit the shop and furnaces of " old Harding, the only countrey glasse-painter that ever I knew though before the Reformation there was no county or great town but had its glass - painters." Harding died c. 1643, aged 83 or more. If a small town like Blandford could still find work for a glass -painter at a time when the art was thought but little of, what must have been the position of affairs in Coventry during the fifteenth century, when painted glass was in ever increasing demand, andl when great abbeys, priories, and churches- were being erected both in the town, and in the country round about ? 2. MR. KNOWLES has mistaken the pur- port of a statement on page 20 of my book
- Ancient Glass in Winchester. ' I merely
ventured to suggest that John Thornton of Coventry might be identical with one John Coventre who as a " clorour and jcynour '* was employed upon the King's works at Westminster in 1352-3. I did not suggest that he was a son. This tentative theory is,, however, effectually disproved by MR. KNOWLES 's further statement that John Thornton was still alive in 1433. This, assuming him to be identical with John Coventre (who must have been at least 18 years of age in 1352), would make him close upon 100 in 1433. Certainly he would' be past taking much interest in glass- painting. As MR. KNOWLES brings forward no- documentary evidence in support of his theory that John Thornton was a son of John Coventre, it is naturally impossible to- deal further with the point at present, but it may be added that Thornton's name does not appear either amongst the glaziers employed at Westminster in 1351 and 1352 ; or amongst the few men mentioned in the fabric rolls of Windsor as late as 1367. 3. MR. KNOWLES 's suggestion that the work of glazing the Royal Chapels at St. Stephen's, Westminster, and at Windsor,, was "rushed through" by means of im- pressed labour, is certainly not borne out by the fabric rolls of Windsor Castle. These fabric rolls are quoted at great length by the late Sir William St. John Hope in his magnificent book upon Windsor Castle [from which much of the following informa- tion is taken).
