G-L. [Edward Gladstone-Lingham], ‘Male Attire’

Gladstone-Lingham was a lawyer called to the bar in 1875, who then practised before the High Court at Allahabad, West Bengal. He had an eclectic range of interests including devising plans and specifications for an ‘Aerial Vessel’ as well as this polemic on taste. His book attempts to show how Taste is responsive to laws and therefore may be considered as a science. He argues that the role of aesthetic reason rather than reliance on the senses in matters of taste, allows for rational discussion. Reviewers panned the work. Grant Allen, writing for The Examiner, said he was ‘one of those writers to whom science means dogma, and good taste means the inculcation of personal fads. One supportive but rather superficial review in the Daily News suggested that the author wrote with simplicity and common sense.