SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 221 



and which he regarded as eleven pence farthing 

 worse than Biron's " guerdon." 



Softly, young sir. Silence for your own sake ! 

 Listen : — a word in your ear. If your gratuitous 

 work attracts no subsequent notice, it is for your 

 modesty to suppose, it was not worth paying for. 

 A man has a right to get things as cheaply as pos- 

 sible — for nothing, if he can : and there is no 

 compulsion on your gratuitous assistance, beyond 

 the sense of doing yourself a benefit. It is to be 

 presumed that Paynaught would not have employed 

 any established architect whatever, had you refused 

 him that gratuitous assistance. The carpenter who 

 executed the required work, would, most likely, in 

 that case, also have designed it : and would you not, 

 sir, as a genuine lover of your profession — would 

 you not as an artist — as one of a class which ought 

 to assume to itself an ameliorating and dignifying 

 influence in society — would you not rather go un- 

 paid, than suffer vulgar tastelessness to go unreform- 

 ed ? It is still, at least some merit, that old Paynaught 

 could just turn the balance in favour of art. Of two 

 alternatives costing him nothing, he could, at least, 

 choose the best; and, indeed, he may have expen- 

 ded in the execution of your design a five pound 

 note beyond what had been the cost of completing 

 the carpenter's design, " Go to — ^you 're a saucy 

 boy." 



But, sir — pardon me. If my gratuitous work 

 attracts, as you have said, no subsequent notice, it 

 may be owing to that meddling ignorance which 

 thwarted all my intentions as to proportion and de- 

 coration. It mai/ be, that my kind patron, having 

 affected a vast motive of well doing, by his afforded 

 opportunity for display, consecutively effected, du- 

 ring the progress of the works, such an entire des- 

 truction of all those peculiar graces which would 

 have manifested the artist, that the issue of matters 

 had been, on the whole, somewhat better, if left to 

 the carpenter alone. Put yourself in my case, sir. 



