He served, therefore, on several public commissions. In some respects he must have been an embarrassing coadjutor. At all times he was more inclined to originate than to criticize; and he would seldom consent to limit his ideas by strict considerations of immediate practicability. He was apt therefore to strike out a line of his own, for which perhaps he could not command the sympathy of his colleagues; and, even when he found the impracticability of such wider schemes, he was reluctant to acquiesce in any others, which might seem to him too narrow for the occasion. Yet it has been seen how frequently it happened, that the ideas which he threw out proved ultimately fruitful, though under other hands, and under different circumstances from those contemplated by himself. For perhaps one of his most striking characteristics was quickness of conception, and a certain “readiness of mind,” which made its large resources available on the instant. This was certainly united in his own actual work with an unwearied industry in the working out of his general conceptions, and a willingness to consider and test them in every possible point of view. But in the task of suggestion and criticism, which belongs to a commission, it had the opportunities of rapid and fruitful exercise, and he was always ready to meet every need, and overcome every difficulty. Partly from a sanguine hopefulness, which led him to make light of obstacles, partly from a deliberate conviction, that in a country like our own considerations of expense are trifling, if any great public want is really supplied, he was always led to boldness and comprehensiveness in his conceptions, which might probably cause alarm in the first instance, and prevent the immediate execution of his designs, but which nevertheless arrested public attention, and showed the ultimate object which public convenience demanded. There are few public improvements at present proposed, which did not at one time or another come under his official notice, and set his pencil to work. He was connected also with most of the artistic and scientific societies of England, and found in them abundant scope for activity.