Bridlington Quay, and Norbiton) were, in Scott's own opinion, ignoble. Though not actually uniform in design, they suffered from the wholesale method of his workhouse practice. Their lack of chancels, their galleries, their stucco mouldings, and general disregard of the requirements of ritual are to be explained and excused as the logical result of a training which, under his parents and his masters, had intentionally excluded the picturesque aspects of church worship and church architecture.
Though Scott was not at the outset in sympathy with the high church ecclesiological party, it was to an interview with Benjamin Webb [q. v.], the secretary of the Cambridge Camden Society (a high-church organisation), as well as to the writings of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin [q. v.], and to a meeting with the latter, brought about through Myers (Pugin's builder), that he owed his first insight into the principles of Gothic art. He strengthened his knowledge of these principles by careful study in the competition for the Martyr's Memorial at Oxford, for which he was selected as architect (1840). His first Gothic building of any size or artistic value was the church of St. Giles at Camberwell, during the progress of which his faith in Gothic architecture was assured.
Scott's first restoration was that of Chesterfield church, followed shortly afterwards by works at St. Mary's, Stafford, and by a successful competition for the restoration of St. Mary's Chapel on Wakefield bridge. There he made the mistake, which he always regretted, of permitting the builder, who had got a good offer for the re-erection of the old front in a private park, to substitute new work in Caen stone for old work which should have been left.
In 1844 Scott achieved European reputation by winning the open competition for the church of St. Nicholas at Hamburg, the preparation for which made the occasion of his first continental journey. He was attacked in the ‘Ecclesiologist’ (vol. i. new ser. No. 4, p. 184) for designing a Lutheran place of worship, and considered himself bound in self-defence to defend the Lutheran position in a paper, which was refused publication. The style adopted in the design of this building was German Gothic of the fourteenth century. The work was the outcome of a special and careful study of German ecclesiastical architecture. Scott did not then know, what he afterwards realised, that France, not Germany, was the real cradle of Gothic church-building.
In 1847 the chapter of Ely gave him his first appointment as restoring architect to a cathedral. The enthusiasm of George Peacock [q. v.], dean of Ely, for Amiens Cathedral led him to pay his first visit to the great French churches, which was followed up in later life by many continental journeys.
The years between 1845 and 1862 were full of commissions and appointments involving designs of new buildings, restorations, and reports. Among the minor work of this period were Bradfield church, Berkshire, rebuilt for the Rev. Thomas Stevens (founder of Bradfield College, in the building of which Scott had an influential though indirect share); Worsley church, begun in partnership with Moffat; St. Mary's, Nottingham, finished by Moffat; St. Peter's Church, Croydon; the restoration or rebuilding of churches at Aylesbury, Newark, Nantwich, and Ellesmere; new churches at West Derby, Holbeck, London (St. Matthew, City Road), Haley Hill, near Halifax, and Ranmore Common, near Dorking. Domestic and secular work was meanwhile represented by Pippbrook House, near Dorking; Kelham Hall, near Newark; Hafodunos, near Llanrwst; Walton Hall, near Warwick; a row of houses in Broad Sanctuary, Westminster; the town-hall at Preston; and Brighton College. In spite of Scott's Gothic tendencies, he carried out during the same period a few classic or semi-classic works, such as the chapel at Hawkstone and that at King's College, London, Partis College, and the remodelling of St. Michael's Church, Cornhill.
About this time a design was prepared for the cathedral of St. John, Newfoundland, and Scott's appointment as restorer at Ely Cathedral led to similar engagements at Hereford, Lichfield, Salisbury, and Ripon.
The additions at Exeter College, Oxford, including the chapel, a characteristic work on a French model, were the first of his collegiate undertakings.
In 1849 came the important appointment of architect to the dean and chapter of Westminster Abbey, which gave Scott the opportunity for much careful and creditable work (especially in the restoration of the chapter-house and the monuments), and provided the materials for his ‘Gleanings from Westminster Abbey’ (published in 1862). The restored front of the north transept, sometimes attributed to Scott, was mainly designed by Mr. J. L. Pearson, R.A., the triple portals alone being of Scott's restoration. Scott indurated the monuments and other internal work with a composition of shellac dissolved in spirits of wine, a process which proved a failure when applied to the roof of the cloisters.
