Status Updates From The Gothic Revival: An Essa...

“Gilbert Scott stood for the ordinary man who felt an inexplicable need for pointed arches” literally me

"Where the local style was itself picturesque, the architect was prepared to use it, with a few embellishments, a few twirls and twiddles, which, though they are rather laughable, give the buildings a feeling of period, like the echo of a lively tune."

"In the history of taste, true understanding of an unfamiliar style is very often preceded by a period of ill-formed and uncritical enthusiasm, a period which provokes the amused wonder of more enlightened times, but is usually the healthiest and most natural path to real appreciation."

"The object of a garden was to induce a mood. To effect this, the wildness of unaided nature was deemed insufficient; solitary groves and tangled trees could only work this enchantment when contrasted with man's handiwork."

"While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bow'r
Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,
On the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves
Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green
Invests some wasted tow'r."