ON THE PERPENDICULAR OF SOMERSET. 35 
boast of our English builders to have brought to its per- 
fection, their graceful and majestie towers. I have selected, 
out ofthe buildings of all ages and all nations, the west 
front of a Somersetshire parish church as the frontispiece 
of my most important published work; in calling attention 
to astrange and almost forgotten cathedral, I have recog- 
nized the influence of Somersetshire models upon one of 
its most important features;* finally, in tracing out the 
infinitely varied forms of window tracery, I have found the 
most perfect of its later shapes well nigh the peculiar pos- 
session of the local style of this county.f In the distriet 
where I now reside, in those more distant regions of our 
island which have lately attracted most of my attention, 
I generally find that the highest compliment I can pay to 
a church is to say that it reminds me of a Somersetshire 
building. From the banks of the Severn to the rocks of 
Pembrokeshire, occasional imitations have from time to 
time reminded me of the structures of this favoured region ; 
while in every neighbouring county, Dorset, Wilts, Glouces- 
ter, I have been always pleased to recognize some faint 
forestalling of the more perfect splendours contained within 
the fortunate limit. Being thus connected with your 
county by atie which to me is no slight one, and having 
always looked to it as the very Utopia of architectural 
beauty, I may be excused for dwelling at some length on 
the peculiar satisfaction which I have derived from the 
present invitation to become the more special illustrator of 
its merits. 
Of course I do not profess on the present occasion to 
put before you a complete treatise on the churches of 
Somerset; such a subject would require a far more general 
* Architecture of Llandaff Cathedral, p. 17. 
rt Essay on Window Tracery, p. 191. 
E3 
