an aperture or open place in the wall of a house to let in the light. Before the use of glass became general, which was not till towards the end of the 12th century, the windows in Britain seem generally to have been composed of paper. Properly prepared with oil, this forms no contemptible defence against the intrusions of the weather, and makes no incompetent opening for the admission of the light. It is still used by our architects for the temporary windows of unfinished houses, and not unfrequently for the regular ones of our workshops. But some of the principal buildings we may reasonably suppose to have been windowed in a superior manner. They could however be furnished merely with lattices of wood or sheets of linen, as these two remained the only furniture of our cathedrals nearly to the eighth century; and the lattices continued in some of the meaner towns of Lancashire to the 18th, and in many districts of Wales, and many of the adjoining parts of England, are in use even to the present moment. These seem all to have been fixed in frames that were called capesmenta, or casements.