Studio: international art (7.1896)

The Revival of English Domestic A rchitecture

to report a conversation not taken down on the
spot is liable to distort the speaker's meaning, one
would like to include his eulogies of Mr. Butter-
field's work, of Mr. G. E. Street's marvellous
powers of sketching, of Mr. Comyns Carr's vision
of an aesthetic suburb which, owing to his in-
domitable energy, was realised in a marvellously
short time, and many another tribute to the
labours of his friends and rivals. Therefore if too
hasty generalisation has appeared to credit Mr.
Norman Shaw with more than his share, it thereby
distorts his own opinion. But all the same,
although Darwin frankly and constantly acknow-
ledged Wallace, and Mr. Norman Shaw pleads for
the recognition of other men, the public prefers to
credit any movement whether it be the theory of
evolution or the birth of Queen Anne architecture
to one man. Nor are they guilty of a sin of com-
mission in doing so, and sins of omission are not
often felt deeply.

For Mr. Norman Shaw deserves a lion's share ot
praise. Not only were his houses from the first
beautiful without and within, but they provided a
setting for beautiful things. Indeed, they well-
nigh compelled the owners to employ finer decora-
tion and more artistic furniture than contemporary
taste required. If you turn back to very early Du
Maurier drawings, and see the ideal of an aristo-
cratic interior in the early sixties, and then com-
pare the same artist's record of a similar interior in
the eighties, you will realise the actual progress
most vividly. In the earliest of Mr. Shaw's houses
he employed freely Morris stained glass and wall
papers, De Morgan tiles and other examples of
new revived applications of the industrial arts.
Some of these industries would have flourished
probably had Gothic maintained its supremacy.
But founded wholly on that style they must needs
have been based to a great extent upon ecclesias-
tical precedent. Hence there would have been