[13] We lately saw an english crest, bearing the motto “Courage without fear;” a piece of tautology, surely of modern manufacturer?

[14] The contrast between the present and former states of society might be typified by the general substitution of the screw for the nail in building; both answering the purpose of the modern builder, but the former preferred, because removable at pleasure.

It is a restless age, in which advertisements of ‘FAMILIES REMOVED’ are pasted on the walls of a man’s house without appearing to excite his indignation.

[15] The ‘renaissance’ work at the east end of this church is considered by Herr Luebke to be ‘the masterpiece of the epoch.’  ‘It is to be found,’ he says, ’at one extremity of a building, the other end of which is occupied by the loveliest steeple and tower in the world.’

[16] It is remarkable that with all their care for this building, the authorities should permit apple-stalls and wooden sheds to be built up against the tower.

[17] An architect, speaking of the Albert Memorial, now approaching completion, says:—­’In ten years the spire and all its elaborate tracery will have become obsolete and effaced for all artistic purposes.  The atmosphere of London will have performed its inevitable function.  Every ‘scroll work’ and ‘pinnacle’ will be a mere clot of soot, and the bronze gilt Virtues will represent nothing but swarthy denizens of the lower regions; the plumage of the angels will be converted into a sort of black-and-white check-work.  ’All this fated transformation we see with the mind’s eye as plainly as we see with those of the body, the similar change which has been effected in the Gothic tracery of some of our latest churches.’

[18] The old woman is well known at Caen, and her encounter with the ‘garcon anglais’ it matter of history amongst her friends in the town.

[19] It was lately found necessary to repair the south door; but the restoration of the carved work has been effected with the utmost skill and care:  indeed we could hardly point to a more successful instance of ‘restoring’ in France.

[20] We might point, as a notable exception, to the memorial window to Brunel, the engineer, in Westminster Abbey; especially for its appropriateness and harmony with the building.

[21] The raconteurs of the middle ages used to travel on foot about Europe, reciting, or repeating, the last new work or conversation of celebrated men—­a useful and lucrative profession in days before printing was invented.

[22] In the British Museum there is a book containing a facsimile of the whole of this tapestry (printed in colours, for the Society of Antiquaries), where the reader may see it almost as well as at Bayeux; just as, at the Crystal Palace, we may examine the modelling of Ghiberti’s gates, with greater facility than by standing in the windy streets of Florence.