Note 100 — Chapter VII · THE NEW PALACE AT WESTMINSTER.

This tower has no diminution. He was quite aware, from the time he noticed Giotto’s Campanile, that such objects will, under certain aspects, appear larger above than below; and had this tower been plain, and without turrets, no doubt the optical illusion would have been corrected. But a diminution in the turrets would have made their inner sides out of parallel with the vertical lines on the face of the towers, and set-offs would have caused dislocation in the panelling—irregularities not to be thought of. For, full as Mr. Barry’s mind was of grand ideas, he was acutely sensitive in matters of the minutest detail. In the architectural decorations of his New Palace, extensive and elaborate as they are, every part has exquisite finish, and there will hardly be found the smallest defect, or even irregularity, that care or ingenuity could avoid.—MS. note W.