and perfect. They had an earnest faith in the future,-believing they were capable of erecting better buildings than they saw before them, not merely disdaining the slavery of imitation, but in numerous instances, as may be seen in some of our best cathedrals, such as Canterbury and Durham, remorselessly cutting through and mutilating the works of their predecessors, not even continuing their mouldings to keep up uniformity, because they considered their own works better. Hence mediæval Gothic, with an unfettered and elastic spirit, was always progressing, expanding, or originating; and hence, from adopting the opposite course, modern Gothic is necessarily cramped, unimaginative, and false, incapable of making any impressive appeal to the outward senses, and still more so of elevating the mind. The treatment of the interior of Alnwick Castle being, then, a question of convenience, of luxury, and cultivated taste, it would have been sacrificing at least these recommendations, if a style had been adopted which would not have entirely harmonised with them; if one had been chosen unsuitable to modern requirements, or unsusceptible of that ornamental sculpture and enriched style of decoration that would have made it a residence worthy of its distinguished occupiers and since no style seemed to present such a pure and diversified scope for decoration as the classical Italian, a band of intelligent and accomplished workmen from Rome have been employed to impart the refinement necessary for its completion. The beauty of this style, and the exquisite way in which the work is being executed, is as yet scarcely understood by the more mechanical artists of our colder clime. : Since this volume has been contemplated, I have received several valuable suggestions from my friend John Hodgson Hinde, Esq., of Acton House, and I am indebted to him exclusively for the chapter on the Saxon Earls of Northumberland. It is satisfactory to know, that a gentleman so entirely conversant with the subject has a work now in the press illustrative of the early history of the county. The grateful acknowledgments of the Archæological Institute b are due to his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, for the patronage he has given to their labours, and for his liberality in presenting, with only two or three exceptions, the whole of the illustrations to the present volume. My own thanks will be more inadequately expressed; since without the same sanction and encouragement the work could scarcely have been undertaken. Holdenby, August 10th, 1857. |