A still more important subject I have as yet but incidentally touched upon. I refer to the _practical_ character of your studies of ancient examples, as viewed in connection with the actual _structural_ and _mechanical_ qualities of the examples themselves, and the learning from ancient examples the principles of Mediæval construction and practical art, and their bearings upon _our own_ constructive and practical operations. Thus, for example, you must give special and systematic study to the principles of _vaulting_ as exemplified by Mediæval buildings. I have, in one of my lectures, recommended, as a prelude to such study, your reading Professor Willis’s paper on the subject in the _Transactions of the Institute of British Architects_ and M. Viollet le Duc’s in his _Dictionary_. You will be the better prepared after this to work the subjects out for yourselves. It is a particularly difficult matter to study, both in its own nature and because the work is usually out of reach. You should watch for opportunities offered by scaffoldings being raised under vaultings, and make accurate measurements. You must study not only the lines and their setting out, but the _stone cutting_ and _jointing_, and all kinds of practical questions, the very existence of which you cannot understand till you have given much attention to the subject. Then, when you have obtained a perfect insight into these questions, you will do well to consider whether there are or are not practical faults in the old work which we should do well to remedy. So in timber-work we should master the old system of construction, and then think how far it is perfect and where open to improvement, and also how far the old system as applied to _oak_ is suited to our own constructions in _fir_, and what are the practical variations suggested by the material. And so on through stone-work, iron-work, brass-work (whether cast or wrought), lead-work, silver-work, and jewellery. You must not content yourselves with studying and sketching from the work as an architectural or decorative design, but must _dissect_ and _investigate_ it, and find out its construction, and how far that construction has modified or suggested its design, or how far this may result from not only the _construction_, but the nature of the _material_. In respect of the _metal-work_ and other kinds of decorative art, you will find great advantage from carefully reading Mr. Burges’s lectures, given some time back before the Society of Arts. By thus following up your studies from _all_ points of view, whether antiquarian, historical, artistic, ritual, utilitarian, or practical and mechanical, you will obtain that perfect understanding of Mediæval art which is necessary to enable you to carry on its revival and practice both with _knowledge_ and _intelligence_. I now come to the _actual practice_ of the lessons learned by such a course of study as I have been endeavouring to shadow forth.