special measures could be taken for its preservation. Another instance of disagreement between those experienced in restoration occurred when Mr. F. Baines, acting for the Office of Works, proposed to strengthen the fourteenth-century hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall with the aid of steel as well as oak (1914). This modern method of preservation was duly adopted, and it will be for the experts in the years to come to praise or blame the restorers and the craftsmen engaged in the work at the present time. With the institution of new legislative machinery it may be hoped that there will be no more instances of misapplied enterprise in removing objects of historic interest from their original positions. The case of Tattershall Castle, since presented to the nation by Lord Curzon, is fresh in the memory of all. The iniquity of taking away the fine sculptured stone fireplaces, now happily restored to their positions, has been matched time after time by similar acts, and it was not without much evidence of artistic crime that the Government rightly took action. Too much sentiment has overflowed, perhaps, in certain cases of alleged vandalism. Owners, including public bodies, have been neglectful of their possessions, and only when someone else has speculated on the commercial value, have the objects been appreciated for their artistic interest. It seems strange, for example, that some treasures of craftsmanship and antiquity from Westminster Abbey, Winchester Cathedral, and other sacred places should have been available for erection elsewhere at the call of the highest bidder. Innumerable relics of domestic architecture and decoration have been taken from English homes for transportation. Anyone who wished to do so could make out a list of indignities which would cause almost as much chagrin as the record, published recently by the National Gallery Committee, of important pictures sold out of the United Kingdom in modern times. The sale of a Gainsborough might be bracketed with the exportation of the Elizabethan panelling from Rotherwas, Herefordshire. In all such cases, however, the word desecration must not be used, for it often happens that without the intervention of those who understand the importance of these things, the decorative details of many houses would have ceased to exist or would have been obscured. A generation which could paint or whitewash the fine panelling it had inherited deserves and receives nothing but censure. Such acts of depreciation were once common, however, and it required a new order of intelligence to cause the removal of blemishes which did great injustice to the original work and really deprived the owners of desirable surroundings. In private houses this unappreciative attitude towards the past was evidence of personal taste gone wrong and might be attributed to narrow influences. But that the germ of destruction should appear in the most hallowed places is more remarkable.