“B. M., October 13th, 1854.

“... The building is going on tolerably. It will be used as a source of great annoyance to me, particularly by our friend X——, who is here for my sins. That building will cause yet to us all—I mean the architect, builder, and myself—great anxiety and trouble; numberless points are to be settled, and they are knotty ones. Then I have to agree about it with some Trustees, who evidently have no clear conception of what it is to be, and make suggestions and objections which they would not make if they understood what that building is, and how it will be when finished.”

As time progressed, it became necessary to encounter and settle the question of internal decoration—a question, in all countries, of extreme delicacy and taste, and, in our own climate, especially in the atmosphere of London, most difficult of solution. The New Reading-Room had no exterior, and those who have seen the interior in its present finished state may readily imagine how bald and unsatisfactory an appearance it would have presented had even a less lavish use been made of paint and gilding in its ornamentation. From a letter of Mr. Smirke’s to Panizzi it would appear that it required some effort to obtain for the building the least amount of gilding necessary.

Here, moreover, the equally delicate question of money arose, for Panizzi’s modest estimate of £50,000 had already been greatly exceeded in the mere construction of the room, without any of its numerous and much needed accessories.

That this was so, may be seen from Mr. Smirke’s. letter:—

“Leicester, October 29, 1856.

“My dear Sir,

... I shall not let the subject of gilding the dome drop without an effort, and propose to submit it formally to the Trustees at their next meeting. If four or five thousand pounds were spent in gilding some of the mouldings of the dome an effect would be produced that could hardly be imagined; it would illuminate, as it were, the whole building, and beautify it without detracting from its simplicity and grandeur.

The £100,000 which the building costs will have been entirely spent in objects of utility; surely four or five thousand pounds will be a small percentage on that sum for ornament. In what public building in London has the ratio of ornament to utility been as four-and-a-half to a hundred?

Yours, &c., &c.,