striving so to live, that our sons, and
our sons' sons, for ages to come, might still lead their children
reverently to the doors out of which we had been carried to the grave,
saying, "Look: This was his house: This was his chamber."

51. I believe that you can bring forward no other serious objection to
the principles for which I am pleading. They are so simple, and, it
seems to me, so incontrovertible, that I trust you will not leave this
room, without determining, as you have opportunity, to do something to
advance this long-neglected art of domestic architecture. The reasons I
have laid before you would have weight, even were I to ask you to go to
some considerable expenditure beyond what you at present are accustomed
to devote to such purposes; but nothing more would be needed than the
diversion of expenditures, at present scattered and unconsidered, into a
single and effective channel. Nay, the mere interest of the money which
we are accustomed to keep dormant by us in the form of plate and
jewelry, would alone be enough to sustain a school of magnificent
architecture. And although, in highly wrought plate, and in finely
designed jewelry, noble art may occasionally exist, yet in general both
jewels and services of silver are matters of ostentation, much more than
sources of intellectual pleasure. There are also many evils connected
with them--they are a care to their possessors, a temptation to the
dishonest, and a trouble and bitterness to the poor. So that I cannot
but think that part of the wealth which now lies buried in these
doubtful luxuries, might most wisely and kindly be thrown into a form
which would give perpetual pleasure, not to its possessor only, but to
thousands besides, and neither tempt the unprincipled, nor inflame the
envious, nor mortify the poor; while, supposing that your own dignity
was dear to you, this, you may rely upon it, would be more impressed
upon others by the nobleness of your house-walls than by the glistening
of your sideboards.

[Illustration: PLATE XII. (Fig. 19.)]

52. And even supposing that some additional expenditure _were_ required
for this purpose, are we indeed so much poorer than our ancestors, that
we cannot now, in all the power of Britain, afford to do what was done
by every small republic, by every independent city, in the Middle Ages,
throughout France, Italy, and Germany? I am not aware of a vestige of
domestic architecture, belonging to the great mediaeval