two years ago took place in London at the Victoria and Albert
Museum. And yet what could be brought together and shown
on that occasion was, of course, inevitably the disiecta membra:
anything non-portable could be represented at South Ken-
sington at best by a copy or a reproduction.

The resultant position at the present moment is that who-
ever wishes quickly to pass in review the evolution of English
Medieval architecture is in no lack of appropriate handbooks:
but up to now no one has dealt in a succinct and connected
fashion with all other aspects of English Medieval Art. Miss
Saunders's book, which I have the pleasure of introducing in
this preface, therefore fills a serious gap in art literature. It
consistently ignores architecture almost entirely except in so
far as the background of the successive periods of art has to be
indicated: but it treats systematically of all other branches of
art, as practised in Medieval England--illumination, wall-
painting, and panel painting; sculpture in stone and ivory;
woodcarving; metalwork; embroidery; enamelling; ceramic
art, and the art of stained glass. Each category is considered
primarily from the point of view of the evolution of style and
technique: but the important province of subject-matter is by
no means neglected, and the intricate system of Medieval
iconography--a fabric of human ingenuity, intensely inter-
esting from various points of view--is mapped out in a way
which gives the student full and accurate information.

On the Continent the student of the Medieval Art of any
given country generally can look forward to finding most of
the objects of his interest still more or less in situ, and a tour
of exploration will mostly take him over churches, treasuries,
and collections well filled or indeed filled to overflowing. In
England the position, as a result of historical circumstances,
briefly indicated above, is different. It is true that there exist
ensembles of Medieval Art in England which have little to fear
from a comparison with almost anything cognate which the
Continent can offer: in sculpture, the porch at Malmesbury

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