s which it has retained--to them does the realisation of all their
longing desires appear truly ravishing. * * * Oh! then, what delight!
what joy unspeakable! when one of the solemn piles is presented to them,
in all its pristine life and glory!--the stoups are filled to the brim;
the rood is raised on high; the screen glows with sacred imagery and
rich device; the niches are filled; the altar is replaced, sustained by
sculptured shafts, the relics of the saints repose beneath, the body of
Our Lord is enshrined on its consecrated stone; the lamps of the
sanctuary burn bright; the saintly portraitures in the glass windows
shine all gloriously; and the albs hang in the oaken ambries, and the
cope chests are filled with orphreyed baudekins; and pix and pax, and
chrismatory are there, and thurible, and cross."

One might have put this man under a pix, and left him, one should have
thought; but he has been brought forward, and partly received, as an
example of the effect of ceremonial splendor on the mind of a great
architect. It is very necessary, therefore, that all those who have felt
sorrow at this should know at once that he is not a great architect,
but one of the smallest possible or conceivable architects; and that by
his own account and setting forth of himself. Hear him:--

"I believe, as regards architecture, few men have been so unfortunate as
myself. I have passed my life in thinking of fine things, studying fine
things, designing fine things, and realising very poor ones. I have
never had the chance of producing a single fine ecclesiastical building,
except my own church, where I am both paymaster and architect; but
everything else, either for want of adequate funds or injudicious
interference and control, or some other contingency, is more or less a
failure. * * *

"St. George's was spoilt by the very instructions laid down by the
committee, that it was to hold 3000 people on the floor at a limited
price; in consequence, height, proportion, everything, was sacrificed to
meet these conditions. Nottingham was spoilt by the style being
restricted to lancet,--a period well suited to a Cistercian abbey in a
secluded vale, but very unsuitable for the centre of a crowded
town. * * *

"Kirkham was spoilt through several hundred pounds being reduced on the
original estimate; to effect this, which was a great sum in proportion
to the entire cost, the area of the church was contracted, the walls
lowered, tower and sp