354 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Paet II. 



we despise all paltry attempts at invention for the mere sake 

 of novelty, and the not uncommon misconception of some 

 original motive. 



116. If some instances of these still occur, there is reason 

 to hope, with the improving taste for architecture, and the 

 very important study of the rationale of every part and every 

 feature of a building, that the repetition of certain stereo- 

 typed ideas on the one hand, and the introduction of others 

 from mere caprice will no longer be tolerated. Numerous, 

 indeed, are the baneful results of that interference by which 

 patrons or employers are constantly injuring the designs of 

 architects *, showing how much depends on the improvement 

 of the general taste ; and there is reason to believe that when 

 relieved from the blunders of irresponsible committees, our 

 public buildings in towns will be as creditable to them as 

 many of the churches they have erected throughout the 

 country. 



117. Indeed it is gratifying to find, that when the English 

 compete with foreigners in architecture, they now sustain 

 their own reputation and that of their nation by at least an 

 equal display of talent; and this has been satisfactorily 

 proved by the designs they have produced both at home 

 and abroad. Those exhibited for the Public Offices showed 

 an amount of talent which till lately did not exist in this 

 country ; thirty or forty years ago a similar collection could 

 not have been brought together ; and though some had the 

 errors of the age, in the story above the cornice, in the adhe- 

 sion of columns to the two-storied walls without the plea of 

 supporting any part of the building, and in the roofs buried 

 behind a parapet, their merits as a whole could not have been 

 surpassed in any country. And when foreigners censure our 



* As in the case of the National Gallery ; where, besides other conditions, 

 and after-thoughts, the architect was required to use columns from another 

 building, whether they suited his design or not. 



