Academy; but it
was useless--Lord Palmerston did not even reply. It then occurred to
Mr. Scott that, by a judicious mixture, he might, while preserving the
essential character of the Gothic, produce a design which would give a
superficial impression of the Classical style. He did so, but no effect
was produced upon Lord Palmerston. The new design, he said, was "neither
one thing nor 'tother--a regular mongrel affair--and he would have
nothing to do with it either." After that Mr. Scott found it necessary
to recruit for two months at Scarborough, "with a course of quinine." He
recovered his tone at last, but only at the cost of his convictions. For
the sake of his family he felt that it was his unfortunate duty to obey
the Prime Minister; and, shuddering with horror, he constructed the
Government offices in a strictly Renaissance style.

Shortly afterwards Mr. Scott found some consolation in building the St.
Pancras Hotel in a style of his own.

And now another and yet more satisfactory task was his. "My idea in
designing the Memorial," he wrote, "was to erect a kind of ciborium to
protect a statue of the Prince; and its special characteristic was
that the ciborium was designed in some degree on the principles of the
ancient shrines. These shrines were models of imaginary buildings, such
as had never in reality been erected; and my idea was to realise one of
these imaginary structures with its precious materials, its inlaying,
its enamels, etc. etc." His idea was particularly appropriate since
it chanced that a similar conception, though in the reverse order of
magnitude, had occurred to the Prince himself, who had designed and
executed several silver cruet-stands upon the same model. At the Queen's
request a site was chosen in Kensington Gardens as near as possible
to that of the Great Exhibition; and in May, 1864, the first sod was
turned. The work was long, complicated, and difficult; a great number
of workmen were employed, besides several subsidiary sculptors and
metal--workers under Mr. Scott's direction, while at every stage
sketches and models were submitted to Her Majesty, who criticised all
the details with minute care, and constantly suggested improvements. The
frieze, which encircled the base of the monument, was in itself a very
serious piece of work. "This," said Mr. Scott, "taken as a whole, is
perhaps one of the most laborious works of sculpture ever undertaken,
consisting, as it does, of a continuous r