On Restoration. By E. Viellet-le-Due. And a Notice of his
Works in connection with the Historical Monuments of Frande. By Charles Wethered. (Sampson Low and Co.)—This is the article, done into Eng- lish, contributed by M. Viollet-le-Due to what Mr. Wethered calls " that valuable treasury of architectural art and erudition, Dictionnaire Raisonne de rArchilecture Frangaise." M. Viollet-le-Due's name is a guarantee of scholarship and artistic capacity, and we are disposed to credit the first of French architects with the possession of a literary power which Mr. Wethered's clumsy translation, loose grammar, and his (or his publisher's) careless printing cannot efface. It is, however, the matter and not the manner of this translation that is im- portant; and that seems to ns really admirable, and worth scores of the papers on this and kindred topics which each summer brings forth at congresses and meetings at home. It is only with hesitation that we venture on criticising a book so truly excellent, but we find, both in the " article " and (more especially) in Mr. Wethered's "notice," a trace of that assumption, so common in "the profession," which we think Mr. Simcox did good service in the Portfolio in exposing, that all mediaeval buildings, whether domestic, civil, or ecclesiastical, are the absolute pro- perty of the past, and are in nowise to be adapted to present occasions, if that adaptation involves a hair's-breadth departure from their original plan. Mr. Wethered's description of M. Viollet-le-Due (we had nearly written " of his hero ") is glowing, if somewhat verbose, and as we should judge by the charming portrait in this volume, not over-drawn. Still it is a good deal to say of any man that he " is an intellectual king among men, with personal attractions and grace, befitting a descendant of the old noblesse."
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