Nature and Art, January 1, 1807.] 
GOOD TASTE IN DECORATIVE ART. 
11 
runs inland, and underneath crop out the blue 
clays of Speeton, rich in fossils. From this point 
we hare a magnificent view of Filey Bay and 
the white houses of the distant crescent, beyond 
which, running out into the sea, is the long sand- 
stone promontory known as the “ Brig.” 
Here our ramble for the present must terminate. 
Over the hill on our left is the little village of 
Speeton from whence we can take the rail to 
Bridlington, or, if we prefer it, follow the highroad, 
and continue our walk across the Wold hills and 
through Bridlington proper to the Quay. Let us, 
however, sit down awhile, and, after eating our 
sandwiches and lighting the friendly pipe, watch 
the blue smoke curling upwards and whirling away 
in little rings and eddies in the summer air. Sitting 
here on this hill-side, what a glorious prospect of sea 
and land stretches before us ; from this spot we can 
overlook nearly the whole of the promontory. 
Yonder are the lighthouses, and nearer the little 
village of Flamborough, with its red-tiled houses 
and grey weather-beaten church. We cannot at this 
distance distinguish the old castle, little of which 
remains to remind us of the former power of the 
ancient family of Constable. Nearer still we can 
trace the line of the Banes’ Byke, with its groups 
of plantations. Far to our right is the sea and 
Bridlington, and still farther to the right the 
range of the Yorkshire Wolds. N ow we look across 
a highly-cultivated country; green turnip-fields and 
waving corn have replaced the gorse commons and 
heath-covered hills ; and the Stone Plover and 
Great Bustard have given place to the Partridge 
and Wood-pigeon : yet the natural features of the 
country remain much probably what they were 
centuries ago. Brigantes, Bomans, Banes, and 
Normans have all lived and toiled and fought on 
the land before us, and have passed away ; and 
we, sitting here on this hill-side this summer 
afternoon, are the representatives of the mixed 
races, units in this great working toiling nation, 
too glad to get away for a few days from the toil 
and noise of cities, to return strengthened and 
refreshed for our work. After all, Nature is the 
best physician, and 
“ If thou art worn and hard beset 
With sorrows that thou wouldst forget ; 
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep 
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, 
Go to the woods and hills ! No tears 
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.” 
THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD TASTE IN DECORATIVE ART. 
By J. B. Waking, F.R.I.B.A. 
A MONG all the subjects a writer could select 
for an essay, there is perhaps not one which 
is more open to criticism and dispute than that of 
taste. The old classical maxim, “ de gustibus non 
est disputandum,” is just one of those assertions 
which immediately lead to a discussion ; in which 
both parties insist on the cogency of their respective 
arguments and conclusions, because both fed them 
so vividly, however incompetent they may be to 
reason on them logically. Whilst admitting, then, 
that in a certain sense, each individual taste, 
amongst a great variety, may be right, and fitted for 
the person who adopts it ; yet among all these various 
expressions of perceptive power, some are un- 
doubtedly right, some wrong ; and although tastes 
may differ to an infinite extent, and we should 
never dream of laying down infallible rules for 
their guidance, yet we would point out, that certain 
important underlying 'principles are applicable to 
them all, and are the only true tests by means of 
which we can decide as to what extent each par- 
ticular taste is bad or good. In a broad and 
general sense, we hold that good sense and good 
feeling must form the foundation of all good taste, 
whether it is evinced in morals and manners, in fine 
or in decoi’ative art ; and although these two funda- 
mental qualities are not absolutely requisite in 
matters of lesthetic taste, yet they must not be 
absent if that taste is to receive its highest develop- 
ment. For it is certain, that though some persons are 
born with more natural sensibility in art than others, 
yet is it a quality, even with them, to be disciplined, 
educated, and improved ; and Burke, in his intro- 
duction to “ The Sublime and the Beautiful,” justly 
remarks that wherever the best taste differs from 
the worst, he is convinced that the understanding 
operates, and nothing else, and that men of the best 
taste by consideration come frequently to change 
those early and precipitate judgments which the 
mind, from its aversion to neutrality and doubt, 
loves to form on the spot. 
“ It is known,” he continues, “ that the taste is improved 
exactly as we improve our judgment ; by extending our 
knowledge, by a steady attention to our object, and by 
frequent exercise. They who have not taken these methods, 
if their taste decides quickly, it is always uncertainly ; but 
they who have cultivated that species of knowledge which 
makes the object of taste, by degrees and habitually, attain 
not only a soundness, but a readiness of judgment, as men 
do by the same methods on all other occasions.” 
All the great writers on the subject, ancient and 
modern, insist on the necessity of cultivating taste 
before it can be termed good and be trustworthy ; 
yet nothing is more common at the present day, 
than a ready presumption and a thorough self- 
satisfaction in deciding on matters which require 
in truth the utmost delicacy of perception, and can 
only be properly judged of by persons of special 
education in art, and who have undergone that 
discipline which professional study requires. 
Although we admit that many foolish and 
