fact that the clerestory windows were of an earlier date than the rest of the church, incurred the censure of the c Ecclesiologlst/ which at the time and for many years afterwards published criticism based more on notions of orthodoxy than on artistic considerations^ and showed little sympathy with works unidentified with ritualistic reform. It is, however, as the designer of large country mansions, rather than as a church architect, that Mr. Wyatt is chiefly known. In dealing with them he has generally adhered to the late Tudor type of archi- tecture, to which rural squires of the last generation gave a decided preference, and which certainly presents many advantages as to con- venience of plan and distribution of window space. Carlett Park in Cheshire, the residence of Mr. John Torr, is an example of this class, and was erected in 1860. -In comparing this with one of Mr. Wyatfs first worksÑMalpass Court, Monmouthshire, built just twenty years earlierÑone is struck with the remarkable advance which has been made during that period in the study of Domestic Gothic. The aim of the designer has apparently been the same in both cases; but the Gothic of 1840 has a thin cold look; the proportions are formal and the details uninteresting ; while in Carlett Park, and still more in Mr. Duckworth's seat of Orchardleigh, Mr. Wyatt has shown of what artistic treatment the style is capable. The quasi-Lombardic details of Capel Manor give it a character of its own, in which national traditions find no place. But the picturesque disposition of its masses, the rich quality and colour of the materials used in its construction, and the elaborate nature of the carved work, combine to render it a most effective structure. Its owner, Mr. F, Austen, has long been known as an architectural amateur, and it is probable that the general design is a reflex of his own taste no less than that of Mr. Wyatt himself

References

Eastlake, Charles L. A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans, Green; N.Y. Scribner, Welford, 1972. Facing p. 261. [Copy in Brown University's Rockefeller Library]

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