ABSTRACT
Elder-Duncan was author of many articles on architectural topics, as well as books on similar subjects. The literary dilettante of the eighteenth century, who dictated progress to architecture on the narrow lines of the Classic orders; or, like Horace Walpole, condemned it to assume the guise of "Strawberry Hill Gothic," exhibited a like tyranny towards the applied arts. Commerce made haste to avail itself of the early products of the new art training centres; but their immature and half-formed ideas showed badly in comparison with the genius that had inspired them. It is satisfactory, too, to note that English influence in the matter of good design, both in architecture and applied art, is beginning to be felt on the Continent, and even in Germany. The natural impatience of the average Briton under restraint gives little promise that he will adapt himself to rules of life conceived by others.
