THE GROTESQUE IN THE MODERN PICTURESQUE. 1011 
If the proprietor could not afford to use the best materials 
throughout, it was the duty of the architect to advise him to 
adopt less expensive, though, for all practical purposes, equally 
durable, materials all round. 
The examples I have here portrayed are commonplace, I know, 
but I trust I have said enough to impress upon you the argument 
which is my excuse for the production of this paper, namely, 
that grotesque in modern picturesque arises from a misunder- 
standing of the first principles of architectural design. 
I hope, also, I have not wearied you with this nightmare of a 
vision (as portrayed in the sketches). It would be all beneath 
notice were it not for the fact that all the eccentricities I have 
put before you are actually being daily perpetrated by many 
practising as architects who at the present time have the confidence 
of the public. 
In a young and comparatively-poor country like this, our 
architecture should be more simple. I would go so far as to say 
that it is absolutely dishonourable to squander our clients’ money 
in what is not durable, or to introduce needless fads of our own 
for the sake of seeing them realised. 
In conclusion, I would briefly state that it appears to me what 
greatly contributes to the cause of so much grotesque arthitecture 
here, may be accounted for by two causes. One is, that our 
students of architecture labour under the disadvantage of having 
no opportunity of studying here the wealth of “picturesque 
examples of actual old work to be found in older countries 
secondly, that many of the practising members of our profession 
have launched forth on their career with less than half the 
experience and training that is deemed necessary to properly 
qualify an architect in England. 
Our profession is, unfortunately (or fortunately), an open one, 
for it has been contended by some of our best men that years of 
the training necessary for examination work would tend to check 
the artistic sense in architecture. Any way, any sort of recognised 
test of ability seems as far off as ever. 
It remains, therefore, for those who have the best interest of 
our profession at heart, to persevere, in spite of much that is 
discouraging, and by the examples of our actual work, rather than 
anything we can write or say, to show that architecture is some- 
thing more than an indiscriminate piling up of features, but that 
it should be a natural expression, not only in general conception, 
but in detail, of the requirements of the times in which we live. 
