This small figure of a peasant, rarely depicted in medieval art, originally occupied a place in the decorated canopy in one of the windows of the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral. Begun in 1321, the chapel was once richly coloured, with stained glass and painted and gilded stone sculpture depicting the life and miracles of the Virgin Mary, making it among the most sumptuously decorated interiors in medieval England. Considered superstitious by Protestant reformers, the imagery was badly damaged at the Reformation and only a few pieces of the stained glass, high up and out of reach, have survived. Nevertheless, the fragments that remain still demonstrate how effective and magnificent the stained glass scheme was.