VI

PREFACE TO

has never practised. There are, however, cases in which menfeel too keenly to be silent, and perhaps too strongly to be wrong ;I have been forced into this impertinence; and have sufferedtoo much from the destruction or neglect of the architecture Ibest loved, and from the erection of that which I cannot love,to reason cautiously respecting the modesty of my oppositionto the principles which have induced the scorn of the one, ordirected the design of the other. And I have been the lesscareful to modify the confidence of my statements of principles,because, in the midst of the opposition and uncertainty of ourarchitectural systems, it seems to me that there is somethinggrateful in any positive opinion, though in many points wrong,as even weeds are useful that grow on a bank of sand.

Every apology is, however, due to the reader for the hastyand imperfect execution of the plates. Having much moreserious work in hand, and desiring merely to render them illus-trative of my meaning, I have sometimes very completelyfailed even of that humble aim; and the text, being generallywritten before the illustration was completed, sometimes naivelydescribes as sublime or beautiful, features which the plate re-presents by a blot. I shall be grateful if the reader will in suchcases refer the expressions of praise to the Architecture, and notto the illustration.

So far, however, as their coarseness and rudeness admit, theplates are valuable; being either copies of memoranda madeupon the spot, or (Plates IX. and XI.) enlarged and adaptedfrom Daguerreotypes , taken under my own superintendence.Unfortunately, the great distance from the ground of the windowwhich is the subject of Plate IX. renders even the Daguerreotypeindistinct; and I cannot answer for the accuracy of any of themosaic details, more especially of those surrounding the window,which I rather imagine, in the original, to be sculptured in