give additional scale to the rest of the building. Notable instances are to be found at St. John's, Red Lion Square; St. Michael's, Croydon; and the Catholic Apostolic Church at Maida Vale. At Truro, on the other hand, the ornament is less restrained over the whole choir; but this will not have its proper value until the sterner nave is completed to create that effect of quiet contrast for which he invariably sought.

In general design he aimed first at form, covering both proportion and contour, and no matter how simple or how rich the detail of the design, these qualities of proportion and outline always held first place, and are to be found equally prominent in whole buildings, in their parts, and in their details. Whatever the coming changes of taste or developments of style, it is probable that his sense of beautiful proportion, of balance, and of harmony, will receive its

due acknowledgment. To single out specific instances from so many notable examples, there may be mentioned the north transept of Truro [fig. 3], on a large scale, the Bishop's throne at Peterborough on a smaller one; while a blending of harmonious detail suitable to its position and circumstance is so marked in his work as frequently to identify its authorship.

As a great designer of towers, Mr. Pearson is perhaps not sufficiently known, and no reference to him and his work would be complete without some allusion to his special aptitude in this attractive field, due to his acute sense of vertical proportion and outline.

In the 1862 Exhibition, and afterwards at Paris, he showed a large sheet of tower designs, all, of course, in his earlier and less interesting manner, about half of which had been erected up to that date. The well-known tower and spire of Holy Trinity, Vauxhall Bridge (1848), is a typical example, and Dalton-Holme (1858) [fig. 1], one of the latest of this period. An interesting tower and spire, showing a great stride, was designed in 1862 for

St. Peter's, Vauxhall, but never erected, which is to be regretted, as it would have made a fine contrast to the early example at the western end of the Bridge. Having thus loosened the reins, the tower designs which followed in great number are invariably vigorous and graceful, and many of them genuine masterpieces. It is unfortunate that the finest are only upon paper; but an illustration of St. Michael's, Croydon [fig. 2], is given to show the architect's conception of one of his completed churches in his best manner. And how nicely the whole is balanced! The scaffolding will soon be down from the lofty spire at Kilburn, which he never lived to see, as the vane was only placed upon it a week after his death. Widely

divergent as these towers are in form, the same feeling runs through most of them. Buttresses are either slight or entirely dispensed with; strong vertical lines. predominate; the stories are graded with an enviable intuition; the spire, when used, is generally short, and that frequent pitfall, the junction of tower and spire, always masterly. In this feature it may be noticed that Mr. Pearson often allowed Northern French methods to influence him as well as in that of entasis, which in both spires and turrets always had his closest care. As an illustration of his painstaking and self-critical methods the genesis of his own favourite amongst his towers -the central tower of Truro-is interesting. His first conception had been drawn in completely on the finished elevations, one of which is illustrated

[fig. 3], when a night's brooding (or it may have been many) decided him that it could be bettered, that the whole must be erased to make room for another and a better, the best of all as it seemed to him. And if it ever comes to be erected with the same spirit as he would have put into it, it will be a worthy crown to a noble creation.

It has been well said that Mr. Pearson was better known to the public as a "restorer" than as a producer. Indifferent to architecture, the public is ready enough to take an interest in controversy, and too apt to side with the loudest shouters, irrespective of the merits of the question. It is not, therefore, surprising that one of the most learned, tender, and skilful of those whose lot it has been to preserve many of our most cherished monuments of antiquity, has on occasions been held up to obloquy as a species of destructive Ironside. But

his manner of dealing with his critics, who became too frequently his opponents, was always the same. He invariably gave the fullest consideration to the points of view urged against him, and satisfied himself whether they were worthy or not of his attention; but he was not to be drawn into public controversy, although he was once or twice led to deny absolute misstatements of fact.

That his sensitive nature felt acutely the attacks of a blustering minority there can be no question, but, with a logical mind, he trusted to a logical and tempered judgment prevailing in the long run. In the recent Peterborough controversy he was satisfied with the rightness of his determination as soon as his critics had exposed their hand and their case by the publication of their so-called "specification."

Space does not permit more than a reference to his views regarding the controversy, which ran high at the time, over Westminster Hall. He was always of opinion that the true proportions of the building could only be properly appreciated from the old low level of the ground, but that the somewhat fatuous decision of Parliament to alter the original proportions did great injury to the building.

No happier instance of a commendable reparation to an ancient monument is to be found than the work he contrived in order to keep up the S.W. Tower of Lincoln Cathedral, which at one time seriously threatened collapse. This exercised to the full his capacity for construction, which was one of his strongest features in dealing with new buildings as well as old, and about which much could be written.

This notice is rather of a personal nature than one dealing with individual works. This has already been done in some measure elsewhere. But characteristic examples of the ecclesiastical work with which his name is generally associated are illustrated, and also instances of quite another manner, in which he was equally proficient. His work at Sidney-Sussex College may also be mentioned, the garden front of which, with the Combination Room bay, is specially successful and interesting. His design for a chapel to the same college, unfortunately not executed at his death, was also exceedingly fresh and graceful, and thoroughly collegiate. More definitely classical work was done at Cliveden Hall and at 19 Carlton House Terrace, where the library is a very successful interior in the Italian manner; and after seeing Mr. Astor's offices on the Embankment, one cannot but regret that London has not been more freely enriched by other civic or domestic buildings from the same hand.

It is quite impossible to overrate the charm of Mr. Pearson's personal presence and character. No better instance could be found of the truism that a man's character is reflected or expressed in his productive work. Modest and retiring always, yet full of mental vigour, and evincing a scholarly interest in his art, to his intimates he was a ready talker, with a genial smile and a keen sense of humour-a fine type, in short, of a courtly English gentleman-one of whom no apter words could be used than those recently spoken by the President from the chair: "Everybody who knew Mr. Pearson must have loved him." As he was being laid to rest by the side of the great ones of the past, under the canopy of the Abbey which he loved and served so well, and beneath the brilliantly conceived organ-case which is so happy an example of his tenderness and skill to wrest beauty and fitness from conditions the most hazardous, the solemn office of the dead, rendered without pomp or undue ceremony as befitted his modest life and bearing, but with a perfection recalling his own strivings and ideals, seemed to speak of his attainment-the love of friends, the warm esteem of fellow-workers, the regret of all, and this-the nation's recognition--the most honoured of resting-places, which England bestows only upon her most worthy sons.

Palmam qui meruit ferat.

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