In order to ascertain the present condition of these carvings, seven years after the operations detailed had been completed Mr. Rogers communicated with the Hon. Edward Cust, one of the trustees of the Earl Brownlow who desired him to communicate with the clerk of the works at Belton. Mr. G. A. Lowe. Mr. Lowe, in writing to Mr. Rogers, informed him that “there is never any appearance of worm dust from the very beautiful carving by Gibbons since you preserved it some years back.” Mr. Rogers stated, at a meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a few years since, that similar carvings at Ditton Park, Cashiobury, and Trinity College, Oxford, are in a state of decay, the surface or skin, in some instances, being, covered with a deceptive white vegetable bloom, which assists in completing the work of destruction. Painting hastens the work of destruction. In the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, some of the finest carved work at some former time was thickly painted over, preventing the escape of the insects within, which were compelled to feed on the last bit of woody fibre, leaving nothing but the _skeleton_ of what it once was. At Cashiobury, where can be seen room after room of the finest of Gibbons’ work, all this charming carving (about thirty years ago) was covered over and loaded with a thick brown paint and heavy varnish, destroying all the delicate feathering of the birds and veining of the leafage, the repairs being done in plaster or a composition. Flowers, each about the size of an orange, were thus left with nothing but a skin of dust, with just enough fibre left to save them from collapsing in the handling. All the glorious work of Gibbons in the chapel of Trinity College, Oxford, was some years since covered with a dirty, undrying oil. We dislike painters who paint carvings as much as the servant who applied to Mrs. H---- (wife of the celebrated landscape painter) for an “appointment” as cook, and having ascertained that the master of the house was a “painter,” remarked, “I cannot take the situation, ma’am, as I have never lived in a _tradesman’s family_.” It is a difficult process to remove paint from carvings, as it is not possible to scour and wash it off in the ordinary way: it must be eaten off by an alkaline solution. With reference to the restoration of carvings which have not been painted, but only blackened by time, they must be scoured by the careful hand of an experienced man.