Hopelessly at variance are the practices throughout the Western Church, and we will not attempt to give more than a brief outline of the general principles. For those who desire fuller information reference is made to a paper by Dr Wickham Legg in the first volume of the Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society, in which no less than sixty-three different 'uses' are analyzed and tabulated, or compared. The rules to which we have just referred are almost the only regulations respecting which uniform use prevails. For obvious reasons, white is appropriated to feasts of St Mary and of the other virgin saints; black is appropriated to the office of the dead; and red to the feasts of martyrs. Usually white is used for Christmas and Easter, and red for Whitsuntide and Feasts of Apostles. As a general rule, however, the same sentimental associations are to be seen with colours in the middle ages as may possibly be traced in earlier times: _violet_ being essentially penitential in its character, _red_ being indicative of fire, blood or love, _white_ of purity and joy, _black_ of mourning, and _green_ of life. Hence _violet_ is the usual colour for Advent and Lent, _red_ for feasts of martyrs, apostles and evangelists, and in some uses for Passion-tide and Easter; _white_ for Christmas, feasts of virgins, Easter, and sometimes Michaelmas and All Saints; _black_ for Good Friday and offices of the dead; _green_ from the Octave of Epiphany to Candlemas, and from Trinity to Advent. The use of the last colour is, however, very arbitrary; it only occurs at one or two seasons in the year in each diocese, and these are very diverse. The following is the Roman sequence of colours for the year, and it may be taken as an example of all: Advent to Christmas Eve: black or violet. Christmas Eve, if a Sunday: rose. Christmas Day: white. St Stephen: red. St John the Evangelist: white. Holy Innocents: violet; red if a Sunday. Circumcision: white. Epiphany: white. Candlemas: violet for the procession of candles before mass, then white. Septuagesima to Maunday Thursday: violet. Good Friday: black. Easter: white. Ascension: white. Rogation Days: violet. Pentecost: red. Trinity Sunday: white. Corpus Christi: white. Trinity to Advent: green. Feasts of the Virgin Mary: white. St John Baptist: white. St Michael: white. All Saints: white. Martyrs: red. Apostles: red. Evangelists: red. Confessors: white. Virgins: white. Transfiguration: white. Holy Cross: red. Confirmation: white. Dedication of a Church: white. Harvest Festivals: white. Requiem: black. One or two miscellaneous points may be worth a passing notice before we bring our account of the vestments of the Western Church to a close. During Lent it was the practice to cover up the images in the church with a curtain called the _velum quadrigesimale_. In the Fabric Rolls of York, for instance, we read the following entry (Anno 1518, 1519):