150 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III. 



another set of designs, thereby giving him the 

 advantage of my ideas. This was accordingly done. 

 His lecture room was upon the second story and mine 

 was upon the first. His was covered by a lofty dome 

 highly enriched ; my ceiling was flat. His estimate was 

 10,000. ; mine was 5,000. His would take two years 

 to execute ; mine was to be finished in six months. I 

 shall pass over the unpleasant circumstances to which 

 this affair gave rise, my resigning my situation in 

 the Institution, being requested by the managers to 

 retain it, &c., and shall only say both the sets of 

 designs were submitted to the members of the 

 Institution at their annual meeting, and mine were 

 adopted, and it was resolved that they should be exe- 

 cuted under my superintendence. Mr. Spiller claimed 

 and got, I believe, 150. I received nothing as an 

 architect, because I was an officer of the Institution 

 at a very small salary, and Count Romford had in the 

 beginning caused a strange regulation to be made and 

 printed " that no one should ever be retvarded by the 

 Institution for any services which he might perform." ' 



In another note he says : 



c In designing the lecture room of an institution so 

 peculiar (unique indeed at that time) my object was 

 to adapt it for different ranks in society, for any 

 attempt to destroy all distinctions must be absurd. I 

 constructed a gallery intended for those who either 

 wished to be less observed, or who, for obvious reasons, 

 would not like to sit down by their employers. It was 

 also to receive such ingenious mechanics as had gained 

 a title to be there. To this gallery a separate stone 



