Ste,—In your note in "News of the Week " in
the issue of January 3rd on " The Burned City Churches " you remark that no restoration can give us back Wren. This seems to me quite untrue. One cannot recover a picture from fragments except in rare cases. With statuary the task is less difficult. With architecture one can restore everything except the patina of time, which is mainly a tourist-asset. Wren himself did not hew every stone of St. Bride's and lay them one upon another. It is the design that is Wren's and what is there to stop us carrying out that design—and any other— again? In most cases I understand the shells of the churches sur- vive to work on. It is mere pedantry or sentimentality to deny that the results of rebuilding would be by Wren. I am without any facilities for reference at the moment, but I believe that one or two City churches have been re-erected in the suburbs already. If this is so, it is an example to follow; if not, we can, after the war, set the example. Many churches, which are now dwarfed by towering offices, could then be decently displayed. The sale of sites should cover a good deal of the cost. But let us avoid both sentimentality and philistinism in these matters.—I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
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