MEMOIR. xiii 



excel, William Morris has said of it, " It is on the whole the 

 best modern interior of a town church " ; and the eminent 

 painter, E. Burnes-Jones, writing to John Sedding, writes : 

 " I cannot tell you how I admire it, and how I longed to 

 be at it." Speaking further of this sympathy with old work, 

 Mr. Longden, who knew him intimately, and worked much 

 with him, writes, " The rather rude character of the Cornish 

 granite work in the churches did not repel him, indeed, he 

 said he loved it, because he understood it. He has made 

 additions to churches in Cornwall, such as it may well be 

 imagined the old Cornishmen would have done, yet with 

 an indescribable touch of modernness about them. He also 

 felt at home with the peculiar character of the Devonshire 

 work, and some of his last work is in village churches 

 where he has made a rather ordinary church quite beauti- 

 ful and interesting, by repairing and extending old wooden 

 screens, putting in wooden seats, with an endless variety of 

 symbolic designs, marble font and floor, fine metal work, 

 simple but well -designed stained glass, good painting in a 

 reredos, all, as must be with an artist, adding to the general 

 effect, and falling into place in that general effect, while each 

 part is found beautiful and interesting, if examined in detail." 



" The rich Somersetshire work, where the fine stone 

 lends itself to elaborate carving, was very sympathetic to 

 Sedding, and he has added to and repaired many churches 

 in that county, always taking the fine points in the old 

 work and bringing them out by his own additions, whether 

 in the interior or the exterior, seizing upon any peculiarity 

 of site or position to show the building to the best advan- 

 tage, and never forgetting the use of a church, but in- 

 creasing the convenience of the arrangements for worship, 

 and emphasizing the sacred character of the buildings on 

 which he worked." 



In his lectures to Art students, no plea was more often 

 on his lips than the plea for living Art, as contrasted with 



c 



