“8th May, 1860.
“Charles Barry.”
[119] He never built himself a house, but wherever he went he carried out his delight in alterations and reconstructions. No house of his was ever quite untouched; and his landlords must have found him a most excellent tenant.
[120] A “Barry Club,” formed and kept up for some years by those who belonged to his office, was a practical evidence of their feelings. It seems almost invidious to single out any one of these, to whose aid he owed so much. But I cannot pass over the name of R. R. Banks, Esq., the head of his office for many years (the years in which the chief work of design was done), and afterwards the partner of my eldest brother. All who know anything of the work then done, know how much it owed to his single-hearted energy, ability, and conscientiousness. And Sir Charles himself was well aware of the warmth of attachment, which animated that active and conscientious labour.
[121] One great inventor (a German) passed into a proverb with us. He had some invention which was to cure smoky chimneys, and his favourite declaration was “All men are fools; it is me shall make him (the smoke) go straight high.” But he was only an extreme type of a very numerous class, and he certainly acted as if he believed his preliminary axiom.
[122] Report in ‘Times,’ May 23rd, 1860.
[123] Agreed to, as a matter of course.