Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/424

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Butterfield
362
Butterfield

cathedrals) for Melbourne, Adelaide (Ecclesiologist, v. 141), Bombay, Poonah, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Madagascar. In the case of the first named, Butterfield's advice was withdrawn during the progress of the work, and the finished interior by no means represents his intentions (Hope, English Cathedrals, pp. 96, 104).

Of his works not yet mentioned the most important are the church of St. Augustine in Queen's Gate, London, another church of the same dedication at Bournemouth, St. Ninian's Cathedral at Perth (completed in 1890; see Hope, English Cathedrals, p. 78), the chapel at Fulham Palace, the ecclesiastical college in the close at Salisbury, the guards' chapel at Caterham barracks, and the Gordon Boys' Home at Bagshot.

Butterfield's name is also associated with work at St. Michael's Hospital, Axbridge; the grammar school at Exeter; St. Mary's Church in Dover Castle; the church and vicarage of St. Mary Magdalen at Enfield; the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge; Babbacombe, near Torquay, where Devon marble was employed; West Lavington, with a shingle spire; St, Thomas, a red-brick church, at Leeds; St. John's, Huddersfield; Emery Down, in the New Forest; Baldersby, near Lincoln; Yealmpton, Devonshire; Ardleigh, Essex; St. Mary's Brookfield, Harrow Weald, Middlesex; St. Clement's, City Road; St. John's, Hammersmith; and St. Luke's Church, Sheen, Staffordshire, recast by Butterfield in 1852, his friend Webb being perpetual curate, and Beresford-Hope patron of the parish. Churches at the following places are also all of them original works by Butterfield: Ashford, Aberystwith, Barnet, Brookfield, Barley, Bamford, Beechill, Belmont, Braishfield, Battersea (college chapel), Clayton, Christleton, Clevedon, Cowick, Caer Hill, Dandela, Dalton, Dropmore, Dublin (St. Columba College chapel), Edmonton, Ellerch, Etal, Foxham, Horton, Hensall, Hitchin, Highway, Kingsbury, Laudford, Lincoln (Bede chapel), Langley, Lamplugh, Milton Ernest, Netherhampton, Newbury, Portsmouth, Penarth, Poulton, Pollington, Rotherhithe, liangemore, Ravenswood, Weybridge, Waresley, and Wykeham.

Though he contributed valuable articles to the 'Ecclesiologist,' the organ of the Cambridge Camden Society, Butterfield was otherwise an infrequent writer, and almost his only independent publication was a small book on church seats and kneeling boards (2nd edit. 1886; 3rd edit. 1889).

Having a large practice Butterfield naturally employed assistants, and, though he was himself an excellent draughtsman, he was careful, at least in later life, to commit all his working drawings to his subordinates; but he submitted their work to such untiring correction that all he sent out from his office may be looked upon as emphatically his own. His life was one of singular seclusion. It was his care to make it as quiet and retired as was consistent with his public engagements.

Butterfield's work cannot be considered apart from the inner spirit of the church revival; his art was entirely inspired by keen churchmanship, and his churchmanship was based on something deeper than ceremonial. Taking the minutest interest in the details of traditional worship, he held in horror anything like fancy ritual. He instilled into the craftsmen associated with him something of his own scruples against working for the Roman church, and something of his own willingness to labour, if need be without reward, for the church of England. He was associated with various conventual buildings erected for the English church, providing designs both for Miss Sellon's establishment at Plymouth [see Sellon, Priscilla Lydia] and for the novitiate wing at Wantage, in which town he also carried out St. Mary's School and King Alfred's Grammar School. He interested himself in the problem of providing cheap churches, and once designed a model church to cost 250l. It was intended to be without porch or even pulpit, and the bell was to hang on a neighbouring tree. As a matter of fact, Butterfield more than realised his intention, for his church at Charlton, near Wantage, cost under 250l., and had porch, bell-turret, and pulpit.

It is in the matter of colour that Butterfield has been most attacked by his critics, and it is certain that on this subject his views did not coincide with those even of his friends. It may be pointed out, in defence, that in the case of All Saints' Church, and others of that period, his colour theory seems to have been that such combinations were permissible as could be produced by uncoloured natural materials. This theory will account for the juxtaposition of strongly discordant bricks and marbles, and the bright contrasts thus obtained led on, upon Butterfield's own admission, to his strange choice of garish colours in glass; but this plea of 'natural' colour cannot be made to cover his views upon the use of similar contrasts in paint. Nor indeed does the consideration that he made a special study of colour in Northern Italy satisfactorily explain the use under the English climate of what may have seemed beautiful beyond the