The antiquarian enthusiast on these subjects cannot do better than consult the work on "English Guilds" published by the Early English Text Society, and that of the "Statutes of St. Paul's," by Dr. Sparrow Simpson, 1873. Fabric rolls and inventories are an endless source of detailed information, in both of these, most minute descriptions are given; the painting and drawing of images, the materials, even to the pencils and brushes, being mentioned. Perhaps the most elaborate is that of the expense rolls for St. Stephen's chapel, in the old palace of Westminster, a bill of charges that helps to identify the kind of work done at that time, and the general artistic treatment in the reign of Edward III. The following entries may be given as a typical illustration:-- William de Padryngton, mason, for making twenty angels to stand in the tabernacles, by task work at 6/8 per each image £6 13s. 4d. For seven hundred leaves of gold, bought for the painting of the tabernacles in the Chapel £1 8s. 0d. The following item shows that there were artists who designed the work afterwards carried out by inferior craftsmen. Hugh de St. Alban's and John de Cotton, painters, working on the drawings of several images. £0 9s. 0d. An examination of this expense roll, of which this is not a tithe of the entries, printed in Smith's history of Westminister, will well repay attention. With those graceful chantries, which adorn most of our minsters, are closely connected the service books of the middle ages, for it was usual to insert in the blank spaces of the collects the names of the founders of the chantry chapels. Indeed, the subtle way in which our old documents, of whatever class, interweave themselves with the annals of our mediæval buildings, whether as regards the general plan, the design of some sculptured porch, the pictured images on walls, or the many-coloured votive chapel, each and all illustrating a quaint legend or significant custom, is too numerous to indicate. "Nor was all this labour spent in vain; their homes for centuries were in the silence of the sanctuary; their authors have mingled with the dust of the convent cemetery; over them have passed the rise and fall of the kingdoms of this world; but through them history has been transmitted with a continuity and fulness not to be found in any other form of art, or, it may be said in any form of literature."[22] "Mid all the light a happier age has brought, We work not yet as our forefathers wrought." Shorthand in Church. BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON, F.R.S.L.