many difficulties (not of their own breeding) in producing them,
know their shortcomings much better than we can do, and are less
elated by their successes than we are. At any rate, they are gifts
to our country which will always be respected, whether the times
better or worsen, and I call upon you to thank their designers most
heartily for their forethought, labour, and hope.

Well, I have spoken of three qualifications to that degradation of
our dwellings which characterises this period of history only.

First, there are the very few houses which have been left us from
the times of art. Except that we may sometimes have the pleasure of
seeing these, we most of us have little enough to do with them.

Secondly, there are those houses of the times when, though art was
sick and all but dead, men had not quite given it up as a bad job,
and at any rate had not learned systematic bad building; and when,
moreover, they had what they wanted, and their lives were expressed
by their architecture. Of these there are still left a good many
all over the country, but they are lessening fast before the
irresistible force of competition, and will soon be very rare
indeed.

Thirdly, there are a few houses built and mostly inhabited by the
ringleaders of the rebellion against sordid ugliness, which we are
met here to further to-night. It is clear that as yet these are
very few,--or you could never have thought it worth your while to
come here to hear the simple words I have to say to you on this
subject.