ARCHITECTURE IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 991 
No. 7.—ARCHITECTURE AND THE ALLIED ARTS IN 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
By J. B. Barrow, President of the Institute of Architects of 
New South Wales. 
(Read Monday, 10 January, 1898.) 
[ Abstract. ] 
Iv has been said that the more abstract and ideal an art is, the 
more it reveals to us the temper of its age. ‘If we wish to 
understand a nation by means of its art, let us look at its archi- 
tecture or its music.” This is true as far as architecture is con- 
cerned, though it would seem that as a living art it flourishes only 
among a young and vigorous people ; and that painting, sculpture, 
and music, at their highest, are the arts of a nation’s decadence. 
We have the evidence of history, in every country, that archi- 
tecture has invariably began to decline before men turn their 
attention to literature and the fine arts. England may be taken 
as one example of this. Within the two hundred years imme- 
diately succeeding the Conquest, twenty-three cathedrals, besides 
numberless great abbeys, keeps, and convents were erected. 
During this golden period of English architecture nothing at all 
was done in the sister arts of painting, sculpture, and music ; nor 
was there any literature worthy of the name: but in the middle 
of the 14th century, when architecture begins to lose its force, 
we find that the art of illumination is cultivated, and Chaucer’s 
pilgrims ride to Canterbury. And as literature grew, and waxed 
strong, the “seven lamps’ which had burned so_ brilliantly 
during the dark ages, grew gradually dimmer as the years went 
by. The lamp of beauty brightened once again, certainly, in the 
Chapel of Henry VII, but it was only with the momentary bright- 
ness of an expiring flame, for immediately afterwards it went out 
utterly. English architecture was then delivered into the hands 
of Italian and German Philistines, who built palatial houses for 
the nobility, where, in most instances, there was a lavish display 
of wealth, combined with a plentiful lack of taste. Then came 
Inigo Jones and Wren, with their adaptations of the style of the 
Italian revival ; but even their genius was powerless to make 
those dead bones live. The impetus of their influence soon died 
away, and in the 18th century, the Augustan age of English 
