12 
Arestoration and the Preservation of Ancient 
auildings. , 
By C. H. Tatsor, President of the Society. 
[Read July 27th, 1897.] 
(BOUT a month ago I was confronted with a printed state- 
ment that I was going to deliver an “inaugural address ”’ 
this evening. It therefore became necessary for me to decide on a 
subject, and it appeared to me that a suitable subject, to take for 
such a discourse, might be “ Restoration and the Preservation of 
Ancient Buildings.” 
An idea appears to have arisen in these latter days, and those 
who hold it make a great noise, that Restoration and Preservation 
are incompatible. You will hear architects described—I might 
almost say sneered at—as “ restoring”’ architects, good enough in 
their way, no doubt, and according to their lights, but very 
dangerous men, in fact public enemies. I hold, on the contrary, 
that restoration is often a very necessary process, and that an 
architect, who is incompetent to carry out a work of restoration in 
a satisfactory manner, does not understand his business. The 
subject has been kept before my mind, of late, and, no doubt, 
before the minds of many other persons, by the controversy that 
has raged in the newspapers, on the subject of the west front of 
Peterborough Cathedral. I read enough of that correspondence to 
form a very decided opinion, and what struck me most, in the 
whole matter, was the great unfairness of those who attacked the 
Dean and Chapter of Peterborough and their architect. No 
architect, in his senses, would desire to take down any part of the 
west front of Peterborough, if he saw his way to keeping the work 
up, without re-building, and the experience of the architect, in this 
case, could not be disputed. 
Another circumstance, which determined my choice of a subject, 
