I have in a previous lecture said a good deal about the study of Italian architecture, and I will not now repeat it. Suffice it to say that Italy is the land in which to study the use of rich materials, of mosaic-work, and of architectural decoration in its highest forms. It is the land in which to give the finishing touch to your architectural training, to learn the last and loftiest lessons--those which show us how to link architecture with the sister arts in their highest perfection. If you are artists when you go there, you may be much more advanced artists when you return. We learn, too, there much that is most useful in respect of the domestic architecture of towns. It is, however, a seductive country, and we have to keep on our guard there, and not to forget that we are members of a Northern nation. Mr. Street has told us a great deal that is deeply interesting about Spanish architecture, so I will not (as I have never seen it) enter upon that subject; and will close what I have to say on foreign travel by urging you to the diligent use of it, but urging you also when you return home, not to forget that you are _Englishmen_, and that _English_ is your proper language. I would also advise that your foreign tours should be followed up or alternated with English ones, so that your own native architecture may always be kept prominently before your mind. I have offered to you in this lecture what may appear to you but the dry bones of the subject. In my next I hope to follow it up by suggestions, both as to the spirit in which this course of study should be undertaken, and the personal training both of the mind, the eye, and the hand necessary to fit you for such studies; and as to the practical uses which you should subsequently make of the lessons you will have thus learned. LECTURE IX. On the Study and Practice of Gothic Architecture. Every day business and practical work to go on _hand in hand_ with the study of ancient buildings--How best to be accomplished--The study _from books_--Artistic and archæological portions cannot be wholly disconnected--Heraldry--A knowledge of the history of art absolutely necessary for the study of Mediæval architecture--Greek art the parent of Gothic sculpture--Ruined cities of Central Syria--Mahometan styles--Our own form of church the direct inheritance from the earliest Christian temples--Training _as artists_--Choice among specimens of different Mediæval periods and styles--Examples especially recommended--Practical studies of ancient buildings in connection with their _structural_ and _mechanical_ qualities--Vaulting--Timber-work--Stone-work, etc., etc.--The _actual practice_ of Mediæval architecture--The _repairs_ and _restoration_ of ancient buildings.