79 



REPORT FROM H. HANCOCK HOOPER, ESQ., CHAIRMAN OF THE 

 LONG ROOM VENTILATION COMMITTEE. 



11 LONG ROOM, H.M. CUSTOMS, LONDON, 

 "28th March, 1882. 



"GENTLEMEN, In reply to yours of the 27th inst., I have to 

 inform you that I have conferred with the other members of the 

 Long Room Ventilation Committee, and to state that we are 

 unanimously of the opinion that your ventilation appliances have 

 been a success. 



" It is evident that no system of ventilation in so large a space 

 as the Long Room can be rendered so perfect as to suit all idiosyn- 

 crasies and temperaments, but I confidently assert that we have 

 enjoyed, since your appliances have been in action, a purity and 

 clearness of atmosphere to which we had long been strangers. 



I am, &c., 



"H. HANCOCK HOOPER. 

 " To Messrs. R. BOYLE & SON." 



The notorious "Seddon" correspondence, which appeared 

 in the columns of the Builder, attacking the ventilation of the 

 Custom House, nearly fifteen months after it was completed, 

 will yet be fresh in the memory of many. The indignation 

 which it excited called forth severe censure at the time. 

 A more unjust and indecent attack it would be difficult 

 to conceive, and the representations made, without having 

 the slightest foundation in fact, were so recklessly im- 

 pudent that one can only charitably suppose the author 

 was at the time under the influence of some mental 

 hallucination. This gentleman, an architect, was the 

 advocate of a rival system of ventilation which had proved 



