SS Mr. E. B. Denison, [Feb. 11, 



in the only line in which it has been allowed to expatiate, is due to 

 what is commonly called stinginess, but should rather be called the 

 perverted and selhsh extravagance of modern times ; and extravagance 

 which almost invariably fails in its object as it deserves. The £5000 

 or £6000 for which a man might have been celebrated as the builder 

 of such a tower as this of Doncaster, as the restorer of the splendid 

 choir of Selby, unrivalled among the parish churches of England, or 

 the rebuilder of the half-ruined but once beautiful steeple of Kedcliffe, 

 the only one of its style remaining, or which would have redeemed 

 Doncaster Church from its only great defect, the want of length in the 

 nave and transepts, is little better than thrown away in erecting some 

 gaudy little structure in a country village or a park, which all the 

 neighbourhood goes to look at once, and pronounces very pretty, 

 and nobody ever wants to see again ; although the rude and simple 

 Early English chapel at Skelton, and the still ruder Norman arches 

 of the humble church of Adel, and many others in all the old Gothic 

 styles, 'are still visited, and painted, and engraved, and pretended to 

 be copied, while all this modern finery produces no more lasting effect 

 on those who see it, than the painting and gilding and upholstery in the 

 drawing-room of the neighbouring hall. 



But here I am afraid the concession to the architects, that the 

 failure of modern architecture is due either to the stinginess, or to the 

 misplaced extravagance of their employers, must stop. For, putting 

 aside the numerous buildings of the eleemosynary class which are 

 evidently starved, can it be said that the rest are satisfactory ? Are 

 they even very distinctly the best ? Nay, are the most expensive parts of 

 the same building certain to be superior to the rest ? I must say, that 

 according to my observation and experience, none of these things are 

 so. Of course, such a proposition is not to be considered proved either 

 way by two or three examples ; but the north side of the great Don- 

 caster Church is unquestionably better than the south, although the 

 south side is far more elaborately designed, and more costly than the 

 other. Again, St. James's Church is a good deal plainer still, and its 

 walls and windows are only a few feet higher than those of the aisles of 

 St. George's ; and yet I believe there are few persons who do not 

 think the plainer ones the best : not because they are plainer, but 

 because, in spite of their plainness, they have more of certain qualities 

 which the old Gothic buildings generally possessed, and which new 

 ones hardly ever have. No doubt in the best Gothic times it was the 

 case that the more elaborate a building was, the handsomer it generally 

 was ; and so it ought to be in all times. But so far is it from being 

 so now, that I should almost be inclined ..to say that if you wish to 

 make quite certain of a failure in the most essential elements of good 

 building, you had better give out at once that you do not care how 

 much you spend. No doubt that looks like a paradox, and it is not a 

 complimentary one to the present race of architects ; nevertheless, I 

 adopt it, not from theory, but from observation, and I believe that if 

 you will use your own observation you will come to much the same 

 conclusion. 



