[Victorian church restoration: the scathing view of the Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed from E. A. Freeman [Edward Augustus Freeman], expressing concern for the ‘grand detail’ of St Mary’s Haverfordwest.

An interesting letter, in which a knowledgeable contemporary gives an extremely critical opinion of Victorian restoration as it pertains to churches in Wales. Freeman’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes how in his youth he had contemplated a career as an architect, and as a historian he showed ‘an interest in field archaeology and architecture, with the ability to sketch buildings and their features’. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed ‘Edward A Freeman’. The recipient is not named, but the letter comes with its stamped and postmarked envelope, addressed by Freeman to ‘W. S. De Winton, / Brecon Old Bank / Haverfordwest’. Thirty lines of text. While he cannot be of much help concerning ‘St Marys at Haverfordwest’, he does remember being ‘much struck with the single (I think) [?] very many years ago and saying something about it in the Archæologia Cambrensis of that day.’ He turns to the question of church restoration: ‘I tremble to think of that very fine work having to go through “restoration” at the hands of a modern architect. Remember the roof at Hodgeston.’ (In 1851 the Cambrian Archaeological Association appointed David Brandon as the architect oversee the restoration of the parish church of Hodgeston, Pembrokeshire. The work was “intended to be a model for future church restorations”.) Besides the ‘cathedral church’, he does not know of ‘any other work in South Wales equal to that at [?] Haverfordwest’, but he would not wish to make ‘a hard and fast class list of chruches in Wales or eleswhere’. This might be done with ‘single features, as towers’, as he did in Somerset, but general comparison is difficult. ‘E. g. Haverford with grand detail and no outline; Llanbedarn with a most stately outline & no detail.’