Vivian, George: A letter to W. R. Hamilton, Esq., with remarks on some passages in his second letter to the Earl of Elgin, on the propriety of adopting the Greek style of architecture, in the new Houses of Parliament (London, 1837)

the proposed new building is of one style, and
one period, and of that only period and style that
is exclusively English Gothic, (if that is any recom-
mendation) : this I maintain to be strictly the fact.
My position is, that it has a unity of effect, and is
not a medley, and that the ornaments are appropri-
ate and not unmeaning,—are in their proper places,
and not sown as with a sack, but are, on the con-
trary, placed with the hand, directed by the judg-
ment : and for these and other reasons, Mr. Barry's
plan deservedly ranks high as an architectural com-
position. You go on to say " we shall have here a
specimen of Salisbury Cathedral—there of Lincoln,
—here, perhaps, a round arch from Durham, and
there an intersection from Viterbo or St. Cross."
All this is entirely in your own imagination. An
architect without invention thieves, transposes, and
disguises. But the design we selected is not eked
out from bits—made up from undique collectis mem-
bris. There is nothing of the Norman from Dur-
ham, nor of the early Gothic of Salisbury, nor the
later and richer styles of Lincoln, and not a vestige
of the little intersecting arches from the church of
St. Cross' Hospital, Winchester. The particulars
stated are facts; not matters of opinion. The remark
" that we pass at once from the Cathedral to the Col-
legiate system of construction," is not very intelli-
gible; and "that it is with a transition bitfromArun-
del, or Alnwick," is not the case. There is no tran-
sition in the composition ; it is, I repeat, of one style