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)

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that I had left London some time previous to the
nomination of the Commissioners, and the issue of
their instructions—before, I believe, it had been
even decided that they were to be limited to two
alternatives; and I was absent seven or eight
months in Scotland ; only returning to England
just before the judgment was given. As to Sir
Robert Smirke's plan, which was also Gothic, I
never saw it,—and it therefore could not lead me to
take a similar impression; besides, I took for
granted then, that the superior powers were to de-
cide, and that we had only to look on, and pay the
bill. As to the arch, you will say, perhaps, it is a
prejudice—but though most useful for mechanical
purposes, I am very much inclined to think that in
exterior structure and decoration you are as well
without it, and it has certainly led to many enor-
mities. On the subject of imitation on one side,
and original conceptions on the other, I know not
exactly what to say. We have had a long trial
since the revival of the arts, of attempts at origin-
ality, and of copying from bad models. You are a
better judge than I am, how either has succeeded;
but we never have yet had, as far as I know, in
Western Europe, a real copy of what all acknow-
ledge to have been perfect in its kind. There is a
good beginning on the Calton Hill. I am willing
to believe that one such copy, on an appropriate
scale, although a copy, would go far, very far, to
create an original taste amongst us — that is to