280 APPENDIX

“It has, however, been justly said, that any traveller who would set down simply and exactly what he had heard and seen, could hardly fail of noting some matters which might interest many wiser than himself, and I believe that at least in the always personal observations which are scattered through the following pages, there may be something of value even to the experienced architect.

“But as for the opinions with which they are associated, I have set them down first because I could not help it; and secondly because in the midst of the opposite and uncertain principles which appear in our present architecture, a positive appearance of any kind has, I think, a pleasantness about it, and perhaps some usefulness, even though it be wrong; as even weeds are of use that grow on a bank of sand. I have, however, some right to speak upon this subject, as I have loved architecture-to my much sorrow,¹ more than most men, and passed more time among the older examples of it than the professional occupations of the architect commonly leave to him.”

The third MS. (c) is as follows:-

“The observations which form the subject of the following pages were originally thrown together in the preparation of one of the sections of the concluding volume of Modern Painters. Finding, however, that they assumed so independent a character as somewhat to interfere with the symmetry of the more comprehensive essay, and believing also that the course of the abuses which they deprecate is so rapid, and the urgency of the needs which they represent so immediate, that their usefulness, if any, would be materially diminished by any further delay in their publication, the writer has permitted them to appear in a separate form.

“He has to express his obligations to a young French engraver, M. de Marvy, whose works will probably be soon, as they deserve, well known to the public, for the communication to him of the means by which he has been enabled to engrave nine out of the twelve of the illustrations of the volume,² entirely with his own hand, and to render them very nearly facsimiles of drawings in every instance made on the spot, with care more scrupulous than he has found usual, even in architects’ drawings, to preserve not only the proportions, but the true light and shadow of their subjects. In one or two cases, details or arrangements of chiaroscuro which were incomplete in the author’s memoranda, have been supplied by reference to daguerreotypes taken under his superintendence.

“(The three line engravings are from the author’s drawings Plate etched by him and finished by Mr. J. C. Armytage, Plates and by Mr. Armytage and Mr. J. Cousen.)

“He has only further to express his regret that the delay in the publication of the volume of which the present chapters were intended to form a part, should be prolonged, but the time requisite for the

¹ [See, for instance, p. xxix. above, and Vol. IV. p. 41 n.]

² [The number of plates was, however, ultimately 14, all of which (in the first edition) were etched by Ruskin himself. The three line engravings referred to above were not included.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]