1907.] on Conservation of Historic Buildings and Frescoes. 607 



memoranda, the treatment of Maclise's great paintings in the Royal 

 Gallery, and Herbert's picture of Moses and the Tables of the Law 

 in the Peers' Robing Room, is explained. But the quite recent 

 operations on other mural paintings executed in the same method 

 may claim our attention for a few minutes. The sixteen pictures in 

 the Peers' and Commons' Corridors, unlike the other wall-paintings 

 in the building, have been protected for many years past by tightly- 

 fitting glasses ; still they have undergone, in part since they were 

 glazed, some changes. The lime-plaster ground had become, in 

 places, quite soft by sulphation, while the pigments were here and 

 there powdery. Moreover, the grey bloom, which so often appears 

 on stereochrome paintings, had overspread many large areas of these 

 interesting and attractive historical works. This grey bloom had 

 produced, in the seven pictures of the series which were dealt with 

 last summer, a peculiarly unpleasant disturbance of the balance of 

 light and shade. In many places, notably in the robes of the 

 figures, the deep-shaded portions of the folds had become lighter in 

 tone than the general surfaces intended to be fully illuminated. I 

 have said that in the seven pictures dealt with in 1906 some of the 

 colours were powdery, the pigments chiefly affected being yellow 

 ochre, raw sienna, artificial ultramarine, and ivory black. This class 

 of decay was seen at its worst in the picture in the Commons' 

 Corridor by E. M. Ward, "The Landing of Charles II. at Dover, 

 1660." A list of the seven paintings cleaned and repaired in 1906 

 may prove useful for reference. And I would beg those of my 

 audience interested in the subject to inspect the series, and to 

 compare the untreated with the treated examples, premising that the 

 condition of those dealt with was far more unsatisfactory than that 

 of the rest : — 



In the Peers' Corridor, four works bv C. W. Cope painted 1859 

 to 1866 : "The Parting of Lord and Lady Russell" ; "The Burial 

 of Charles I." ; " Charles I. erecting his Standard at Nottingham " ; 

 " Speaker Lenthall asserting the privilege of the Commons." 



In the Commons' Corridor, three works by E. M. Ward : " The 

 Last Sleep of Argyll"; "Charles 11. and Jane Lane"; "The 

 Landing of Charles II. at Dover, 1660." 



The same methods of cleaning and reparation were adopted as in 

 other cases. The grey bloom of silica and sulphate of lime was 

 removed by oblique flicking with soft pads stuffed with carded 

 cotton ; cleaning with bread, distilled water, and spirits of wine 

 removed dirt and saline matter. The weak places in the ground 

 were consolidated by means of ceresin, while the whole surface finally 

 received a slight protective film of spirit-fresco medium. 



In the early part of this discourse I described, out of their proper 

 place, the repairs executed in the five true frescoes by W. Dyce in the 

 King's Robing Room. I now direct attention to another fresco. It 

 was executed in 1872-;-5 in the church of St. Stephen, Sydenham Hill, 



