ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION A CENTURY AGO. By A. T. Bolton. (Some
Museum Publication No. 12. ls. net.)
Primarily a sketch of Sir John Soane's office from within, and more especially of George Basevi (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Belgrave Square, &c.), one of its most remarkable products, Mr. Bolton's pamphlet also gives short biographies of over fifty of Sir John's pupils and assistants. We learn that John Sanders, who built Sandhurst and the Duke of York's School, Chelsea (1801), was bis first pupil ; that Sir Robert Smirke left after only a few months' pupilage (the hours were 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.) ; that another pupil ran away to sea with a large sum of money intended for the bank ; and that another assistant (like Basevi) was killed by a fall from the scaffolding. Incidentally the central figure, Soane. emerges as a man of much charm and generosity.
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