The feelings excited by his death naturally gave rise to the desire of some external memorial of him in the scene of his architectural labours. The idea was taken up by many, chiefly by his old and kind friends Professor Donaldson and Mr. Wolfe, and it was warmly aided by the Duke of Newcastle, the most constant of all his official patrons and supporters. No monument could be erected in the over-crowded Abbey—a simple memorial brass has been placed by his family to mark his resting-place in the nave. Permission was therefore sought and granted for the erection of a statue in the New Palace. It was desired to place it in St. Stephen’s Porch, near the point which marks one of the chief features of the design—the utilisation of Westminster Hall as the grand entrance to the building, by the splendid arch and staircase at its southern end. This position, by which the main stream of people flows, was refused. The only one which could be obtained was at the foot of the public staircase leading to the upper range of Committee rooms from the “Witness Hall,” one public enough, but not very central, nor very well adapted to the exhibition of the statue in itself.
A subscription was opened, in which his family was allowed to take no part, in order that the memorial might be one from his personal friends and his professional brethren. The work was entrusted to Mr. Foley. The result is the statue, which is now placed in the position assigned to it—admirable as a work of art, and excellent as a representation of the original. It is the more remarkable, inasmuch as it was not taken from life, or even from a cast of the face after death. The only materials were a good bust by Behnes, one or two photographs, and the sculptor’s own personal recollections. The work which Mr. Foley has produced from these materials, by the fine outline of the head, and the expression of vigour and energy in the face, has the merit of giving to strangers the idea of a man who could deserve and achieve eminence. It has the hardly inferior merit of bringing back its original very simply and very effectively to those who knew him.
It is but right that it should find some place in the building to which he devoted so much labour and skill, for which he gave up so much of his life. But the principle of the old “Si monumentum quæris, circumspice” has its application to him also. He can need no monument in Westminster. His works remain; by them he would have wished to be judged; to them both now, and even more hereafter, when lapse of time has given value and solidity to men’s judgment, his reputation may safely be left.
APPENDIX.
CONTENTS.
(A.) List of Architectural Designs.
(B.) Letter to His Royal Highness the Prince Consort as to the South Kensington Scheme.
(C.) Papers on the Remuneration Controversy.
(a.) Letter of the Architect to the New Palace Commissioners in 1849.
(b.) Treasury Minute of February, 1854.
(c.) Reply of Sir C. Barry, March, 1854.
(d.) Letter of J. M. White, Esq., July, 1855.
(e.) Treasury Minute of January, 1856.
(f.) Reply of Sir C. Barry of February, 1856.
(g.) Conclusion of Treasury Minute of July, 1856.
(h.) Brief Remarks of Sir C. Barry, 1856.
(D.) List of Subscribers to the Memorial Statue.
(A.)
LIST OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS OF SIR C. BARRY, R.A.