REVIEWS 303

remains made on his frequent journeyings in Wiltshire and Hampshire the results of which are
geographically recorded in his map of Ancient Wessex in his Monumenta Britannica (reproduced
in pi. 15), Aubrey assembled material from monumental inscriptions and heraldic bearings in
local churches for a Description of the North Division of Wiltshire; he made also a collection of
architectural details for the purpose of tracing the history of English architecture from the dark
ages down to his own time mainly by illustrative examples such as mouldings and window
tracery selected from buildings in Oxford, Wiltshire, and elsewhere, thereby attempting a chrono-
logy not to be surpassed until Thomas Rickman's work in the early nineteenth century. In
addition he interested himself in the history of handwriting, making for a projected 'Chronologia
Graphica' facsimiles of old scripts (a page from which Mr. Hunter reproduces in his pi. 13).
All these again illustrate 'his love of imaginatively indicating subjects rather than systematically
exploring them', as the author happily puts it (p. 214). These as well as Aubrey's innumerable
other activities are described and illustrated in profuse detail and with full documentation by
Mr. Hunter, who has appended to his study a most useful discussion of the manuscript and
printed texts of Aubreys' writings, a list of his lost works, and an account of his library. Admit-
tedly the price of the book is high but we must be grateful to the publishers for printing the
footnotes in their proper place, i.e. at the foot of the pages, and for enriching the book with a
number of excellent and well-chosen plates. C. E. WRIGHT

Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture. Eighteenth edition, revised by J. C. PALMES.

o,-| x6-|. Pp. xvii-f-1390, with many figs., pis., and maps. London: The Athlone Press, 1975.
£12-50.
The book universally known as 'Banister Fletcher' has held its own for eighty years as the
principal source of architectural history used in this country. Its wide scope and riches of illustra-
tion have always made it especially useful as an educational manual. From it the average student
could, and can, obtain a general view of the world's significant buildings. This cannot be said of
any other single volume in the English language. Furthermore, the line drawings and particularly
those to uniform scales, provide an unrivalled basis of comparison.
The comparative aspect of the book was fundamental and Fletcher himself favoured the
short title 'Comparative Architecture'. Seen at its best in the double-column contrast between
Greek and Roman styles, and between French and English Gothic, the comparisons were not
without drawbacks. T o some extent repetitive and thus wasteful of space, they also led in the
case of styles which were not comparable with those of the Classical/West European tradition to
outright rejection. Fletcher paradoxically cut adrift Indian, Far Eastern, Ancient American,
and Saracenic architecture as 'The Non-Historical [sic] Styles'. In the eighth edition of 1928, on
which this reviewer was brought up, these poor relations lumped together were given only 76
pages, about one-twelfth of the whole work. These styles have now spread to 148 pages of a
much larger book, but constitute nearly one-ninth of it; they are besides welcomed and integrated,
so that the student is no longer invited, by a subtle implication, to forget all about them.
This revolutionary reshaping has rejected the tables and sections on comparison altogether, and
in some ways this has to be regretted. The original book was, and for sixteen editions remained,
an individual brainchild, with comparison as its middle name. Already given a drastic overhaul
for the seventeenth edition by the late Professor Cordingley fifteen years ago, the work is now
something entirely different, though looking deceptively like its begetter. In 1928 less than 20
pages were given to modern architecture in England, the British Dominions, and the United
States of America, and no space at all to any other recent buildings. Now all but 200 pages are
3O4 T H E ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL
devoted to architecture since 1830, roughly one-seventh of the total. This is too much, and over-
estimates the importance of the near-contemporary almost as badly as Fletcher's treatment
undervalued it. What is worse, the treatment of European medieval styles, Romanesque and
Gothic, has suffered a severe setback. There is a net increase from 297 to 319 pages, but in the
far larger book this means a big relative loss. Britain is even worse served, for its share has not
only gone back a page, from 124 to 123 pages, but these now include treatment of Scandinavian
Romanesque.
It is right and proper that the rejected styles should be brought into the framework; that there
should be at least an adequate coverage of the last 150 years; and that the special qualities of the
architecture of hitherto neglected countries should be described rather than utterly omitted.
Mr. Palmes is eminently right to do all this; yet it should not have been at the expense of the great
outpouring of scholarship on the European and British middle ages seen in the last two genera-
tions. The account of English Gothic is sadly inadequate and at times misleading. T o give but
a single example: on p. 622, devoted to a 'table of some of the principal events' in the British Isles
between 1154 and 1547, one of only three specific architectural items runs: '1330. S. Stephen's
Chapel in the Palace of Westminster was rebuilt by the mason William of Ramsey, in a style
adopted from that of the French Court.' But on p. 662 the date of St. Stephen's is correctly
given as 1292, long before Ramsey's time. Reference to standard works, such as The History of
the King's Works, vols. i and ii (1963) would have shown that Ramsey did not appear on the
scene until even later than 1330; yet this is not the only important book omitted from the
bibliographies. Among the few titles on Ireland is H. G. Leask's Irish Castles of 1946, but not
his much more substantial Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings in three volumes (1955—60).
T h e book lists are in fact weak and mostly uncritical.
Mr. Palmes, to whom all architectural historians owe so much for his distinguished librarian-
ship at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1948-69, has not been very well served by his
collaborators and contributors. T h e chapter on Islamic architecture is well above average and
almost entirely new, but even in the three pages on Ottoman Turkey there are quite nine or
ten errors in dating which could have been corrected from Mr. Godfrey Goodwin's meticulous
Ottoman Architecture of 1971, which actually is in the bibliography. Sad as it is to have to say it,
the new Fletcher, well printed and finely illustrated, is not a reliable textbook.
JOHN H. HARVEY

Oxford Stone Restored: The work of the Oxford Historic Buildings Fund, 195J-1974. Edited by
W. F. OAKESHOTT. 1 1 x 7 ^ . Pp. vii + 1 2 2 + 5 6 pis. (18 in col.). Oxford: University Press,
1975. £5-00.
T h e Trustees offer this book as a tribute to their Chairman, the late Lord Bridges. It is edited
by Dr. W. F. Oakeshott from material prepared by Mr. David Verey. Dr. Oakeshott's account of
the founding of the fund will be appreciated by all those who have attempted to achieve co-
operation among Oxford colleges. He rightly emphasizes that the major problem of restoration
in Oxford has always been the poor quality of the local building stone, especially the 'soft' stone
from the Headington quarries which possessed specious immediate advantages for the more
elaborate types of building demanded from the late sixteenth century onwards, but deteriorated
rapidly and disastrously.
T h e book consists largely of a series of narratives of work done on the various buildings aided
by the fund. These are substantially the actual contributions of the architects and colleges
concerned, clear and workmanlike, and thus extremely useful for study. A valuable addition is the
collection of plates illustrating some of the problems and discoveries encountered during the work.