22 MARCH 1924, Page 10

ARCH ITECTURAL NOTES.

By LORD GERALD WELLESLEY.

SOMETHING must be done to arouse the dormant architecturid perception of the nation. Mr. John's magnificent portrait of Madame Suggia excites almost as much admiration and comment as it deserves. An exhibition of Mr. Epstein's sculpture is thronged. Columns of the newspapers are devoted to the production of a new opera by Mr. Hoist at Covent Garden. It would take almost as long to read all the criticisms of Mr. Shaw's Methuselah as it would to witness the whole cycle. Yet vast buildings of outstanding artistic merit are being every day erected in our streets and their appearance excites neither criticism nor even interest. A public a thousand times more numerous than that which goes to picture galleries or theatres is privileged to witness the gradual creation of a work of art and to enjoy it gratuitously and continuously when finished, and it accepts this privilege with as much indifference as it accepts the air it breathes or the security it enjoys. Architecture is indeed both the mistress and the Cinderella of• the Arta.