PHOTOGRArniC SURVEY OF THE COUNTY. 19 



No one can visit, as you do, various i)arts of the country without 

 being struck by tlie fact, -whether you deplore it, as 1 do, or not, that 

 year by year the antiquities of the country are disappearing before 

 the march of civilisation and the hands of the so-called restorer 

 and improver. Well, no doubt from a sanitary point of view it 

 may be desirable that some, nay, many, of the picturesque old 

 cottages with their grey stone walls and overhanging thatch, low 

 ceilings, and general atmosphere of damp and decay should be pulled 

 down, and as the nineteenth century is an eminently practical one, 

 and cares little about art, but desires cheapness, trimness, comfort, 

 and smartness, it is not surprising that cottages of two or three 

 types, all showing little real love for art or delight in the beautiful, 

 should take their place. We have first the box-like building with 

 its slate or tiled roof, underneath which the upper rooms are like 

 an oven in summer, and through the interstices of which the 

 powdery snow is driven in winter ; then we have the sham half 

 timber houses, many of which may be seen in model villages about 

 Shaftesbury ; and, again, we have larger houses, shops with 

 pretentious stucco-covered walls, of which examples may be seen in 

 this town, occupying sites which in my own memory could boast 

 of houses which were a joy to behold. Then we see year after year 

 old churches putting on a new appearance under the restorer's 

 hands, walls scraped, plaster removed, old woodwork destroyed, 

 pews and pulpits swept away, ceilings torn down to make way for 

 open timber roofs, organ chambers and vestries, often most hideous 

 excrescences, run out, not unfrequently necessitating the removal of 

 good old work to make room for them ; and, worse than all, con- 

 jectural restoration of what the architect imagines was once to be 

 found in the building, lifeless imitations in the 19th century of 

 features that once were full of the vitality of the builder's or carver's 

 soul. It is, I think, one of the duties of an antiquarian society to 

 protest against the wholesale destruction which is going on around 

 us ; but I know from bitter experience that the protests often fall 

 on unheeding ears, and gain for the prophets of ai-t the character 

 of crack-brained enthusiasts. Now, it seems to me tliat if we 



