MEMOIR. xi 



to the larger, purer air of a country house in the little 

 village of West Wickham, Kent. This house he con- 

 tinued to occupy until his death. Work of all kinds now 

 began to flow in upon him, not rapidly, but by steady in- 

 crease. His rich faculty of invention, his wide knowledge, 

 his skill in the manipulation of natural forms, the fine 

 quality of his taste, were becoming more and more known. 

 He produced in large numbers designs for wall-papers, for 

 decoration, and for embroidery. These designs were never 

 repetitions of old examples, nor were they a rchauff6 of 

 his own previous work. Something of his soul he put into 

 all that he undertook, hence his work was never common- 

 place, and scarcely needed signature to be known as his, 

 so unmistakably did it bear his stamp, the "marque de 

 fabrique," of his individuality. 



I have known few men so well able as he to press 

 flowers into all manner of decorative service, in metal, wood, 

 stone or panel, and in needlework. He understood them, 

 and could handle them with perfect ease and freedom, 

 each flower in his design seeming to fall naturally into its 

 appointed place. Without transgressing the natural limits 

 of the material employed, he yet never failed to give to 

 each its own essential characteristics, its gesture, and its 

 style. Flowers were indeed passionately loved, and most 

 reverently, patiently studied by him. He would spend 

 many hours out of his summer holiday in making careful 

 studies of a single plant, or spray of foliage, painting them, 

 as Mr Ruskin had taught him, in siena and white, or 

 in violet-carmine and white. Leaves and flowers were, 

 in fact, almost his only school of decorative design. 



This is not the place to attempt any formal exposition 

 of John Sedding's views on Art and the aims of Art. 

 They can be found distinctly stated and amply, often 

 brilliantly, illustrated in his Lectures and Addresses, 

 of which some have appeared in the architectural papers 



