All Saints' College, Oxford, has done a shabby thing. After
employing a Roman Catholic architect, Mr. Clutton (a convert of some eighteen years back),—no doubt without full knowledge, on the part either of the College or of its Managing Committee, of the religion of the architect,—to advise them on needful repairs to the structure of their fine old chapel, and having been told by him of the probable existence of the remains of the once celebrated reredos of Chichele behind Thornhill's picture of the Assumption of Chichele, the College has suddenly taken the restoration of the old chapel out of his hands, after the remains of the beautiful reredos had been found in perfect correspondence with his predic- tion, on the ground that "there is a strong and general feel- ing against placing such a work as the restoration of the newly discovered reredos in the hands of any architect whose views are not formed on the same theological basis as that of the members of the College." Mr. Clutton seems to think that this act is a reflection on his professional character as an architect, which is absurd, since it is honestly avowed to be only a reflection on his reli- gious character as a Roman Catholic. It is very hard upon an artist to see other men entering into the fruits of such labours as Mr. Cluttou's ; and for our own parts, we think that if All Souls' dreads Roman Catholic architecture, it would have been wiser not to uncover the reredos at all, but to leave it buried in its architec- tural grave.
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