*[In a conversation I (ie JC Loudon) had the satisfaction to enjoy with the late Earl of Orford (ie Horace Walpole), at Strawberry Hill, he shewed me the gradual progress of his knowledge in Gothic architecture, by various specimens in that house, in which he had copied the forms of mouldings without always attending to the scale or comparative proportion; and his lordship's candour pointed out to me the errors he had at first committed. This error, in the imitators of Gothic, often arises from their not considering the difference of the materials with which they work: if, in the mullions of a window, or the ribs of a ceiling, they copy, in wood or plaster, ornaments originally of stone, they must preserve the same massive proportions that were necessary in that material, or they must paint it like wood, and not like stone: but if the architects of former times had known the use we now make of cast-iron, we should have seen many beautiful effects of lightness in their works; and surely in ours, we may be allowed to introduce this new material for buildings, in the same manner that we may fairly suppose they would have done, had the invention been known in their time: but wherever cast-iron is used in the construction, it ought to be acknowledged as a support, either by gilding, or bronze, or any expedient that may shew it to be metal, and not wood or stone, otherwise it will appear unequal to its office.]
