There is no certainty of when the smaller domestic houses of England began to use glazed windows. In 1519 William Horman wrote: “I wyll haue a latesse before the glasse for brekynge.” This would suggest that windows of latticework were preferred because of the cost of glass, and this might have been filled instead with canvas, horn, or tile to let in some light. But another writer in 1562 says: “Lattice keepeth out the light and letteth in the winde.” When glass windows were used, however, the small bits of glass were held in position by lead in diamond-shaped patterns, which probably were adopted from the form of the old lattice windows, although later it was found that rectangular panes were cheaper. But the use of glass in small houses is comparatively modern, for, before the reign of Henry VIII, glass windows were rare except in churches and gentlemen’s houses. [Illustration: An old unglazed window, the early beginnings of sash] Traditions of stone mullioned windows were very strong, and these brought about a system of building wooden, unglazed sash which had mullions made of oak, set in a heavy oak frame. One of these is shown in the drawings. The word “sash” is derived from the French “chassis,” and its earliest spelling was “shas” or “shash.” In a book, “Mechanick Exercises,” written by Moxon in 1700, he mentions “shas frames and shas lights.” It was these old, unglazed wooden sash which gave birth to the modern double-hung and casement window. [Illustration: Crude beginning of the sliding Sash] As first made, they opened by sliding in their frames, either horizontally or vertically. If they were built to slide vertically they were not counterbalanced with weights, as in our modern windows, but were held in position with a hook which caught in notches cut in the side of the frame. It is interesting to quote here what William Horman wrote in 1519: “I haue many prety wyndowes shette with louys goynge up and downe.” It is supposed that the idea of counterbalancing these sash by means of weights, attached by a cord running up over a pulley, came to England from Holland. This type began to be used about the latter half of the seventeenth century, and although the early examples were clumsy and heavy and the groove in which the sash were made to run was worked out in the solid, yet by the process of years of refinement the modern double-hung window was evolved. The traditions of these sliding windows were brought to America in Colonial days, and they proved to be the most suitable types for our rigorous climate, whereas the windows, which swung like doors from their sides, called casement windows, did not prove so weather-resisting. [Illustration: Modern Double-hung Window Casement Window Sash swings inward]