12 



lUstoratiou anfo % J wm&ation of ^ndent 



By C. H. Talbot, President of the Society. 



[Bead July 27th, 1897.] 



J^gjj^BOTJT a month ago I was confronted with a printed state- 

 f^>|JS ment that I was going to deliver an " inaugural address " 

 this evening. It therefore became necessary for me to decide on a 

 subject, and it appeared to me that a suitable subject, to take for 

 such a discourse, might be " Restoration and the Preservation of 

 Ancient Buildings." 



An idea appears to have arisen in these latter days, and those 

 who hold it make a great noise, that Restoration and Preservation 

 are incompatible. You will hear architects described — I might 

 almost say sneered at — as " restoring " architects, good enough in 

 their way, no doubt, and according to their lights, but very 

 dangerous men, in fact public enemies. I hold, on the contrary, 

 that restoration is often a very necessary process, and that an 

 architect, who is incompetent to carry out a work of restoration in 

 a satisfactory manner, does not understand his business. The 

 subject has been kept before my mind, of late, and, no doubt, 

 before the minds of many other persons, by the controversy that 

 has raged in the newspapers, on the subject of the west front of 

 Peterborough Cathedral. I read enough of that correspondence to 

 form a very decided opinion, and what struck me most, in the 

 whole matter, was the great unfairness' of those who attacked the 

 Dean and Chapter of Peterborough and their architect. No 

 architect, in his senses, would desire to take down any part of the 

 west front of Peterborough, if he saw his way to keeping the work 

 up, without re-building, and the experience of the architect, in this 

 case, could not be disputed. 



Another circumstance, which determined my choice of a subject, 



