THE SOUTH BEVON 



MONTHLY MUSEUM. 



PLYMOUTH, AUGUST 1, 1833. 



No. 8.] Price Sixpence. [Vol. II. 



CJe Spectator, Kumter IM. 



GATEWAY ENTRANCE TO THE NEW 



VICTUALLING OFFICE. 



The habitual quackery of lauding foreign architec- 

 ture, at the expense of native examples, has of late 

 received so many hard blows from our granite blocks 

 that we may speedily look for its final destruction. It 

 is, indeed, high time for the English to learn that it is 

 only in the want of pecuniary means that we are not all 

 that the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans have been 

 before us. Whenever opportunity occurs, (and it has 

 occurred of late not unfrequently,) we shew ourselves 

 quite up to the mark, and hold out sufficient proof 

 that, in proportion to the extent of our command upon 

 material and labour, may be the grandeur of our archi- 

 tectural monuments. 



Among the thousand recently erected evidences to 

 this truth, the gateway to the new Victualling Office 

 is one of the proudest : of Colossal magnitude and im- 

 perishable material, it is equally satisfactory to sight 

 and sentiment ; for, however grand a design may be as 

 to outline and decorative propriety, the consciousness 

 of a plaster superficies is sadly opposed to its due ef- 

 fect upon the " mind's eye." 



But — here, we have granite — glorious granite — the 

 enduring chronicler which will speak of the now to the 

 admiring sense of "the hereafter!" Thje design is 

 worthy of the labour and expense bestowed upon it. 

 It is honorable to the nation, and, beyond all ordinary 

 measure, creditable to its designer, — Rennie. 

 VOL. II.— 1833. F 



